Existing within the framework of Memento Mori (Latin: remember that you have to die), the majority of Michael Reedy’s work employs skulls and other objects that serve as a reminder of death. However, these images are imbued with a degree of sarcastic self-awareness and self-pity. Antagonistic clipart cherubs, vomiting demons, skull babies, floating brains, and organ ghosts become central to the grand spectacle that is called getting older – and not wanting to. When combined with an alien landscape full of hypno-spirals, cascading vortexes, and black holes, we find ourselves transported to another plane that is seriously trying to not take itself too seriously. This point of tension between hope and despair, humor and pain, and living and dying is of infinite interest to Reedy and represents his mindset every time he looks in the mirror and sees another grey hair.

Michael Reedy lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan and teaches drawing at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Art & Design. His work has been included in over 200 national and international exhibitions and can be viewed in numerous private and institutional collections, including Clatsop Community College, Minot State University, Shippensburg University, and the Hoffman Trust National Collection in association with the San Diego Art Institute. His work has also been featured in over 30 books and journals including Hi-Fructose, Juxtapoze, Spectrum, Fresh Paint, Create Magazine, Creative Quarterly, The Moleskine Project Vol. 2 (Spoke Art), and Manifest Gallery’s 12th International Drawing Annual. Notable recent creative activities include a two-person exhibition at 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco; and solo exhibitions at Helikon Gallery, Denver; The Scarab Club, Detroit; Arch Enemy Arts, Philadelphia; and BeinArt Gallery, Brunswick, Australia.