Artist Interviews 2025

Mick Victor  
By Julia Siedenburg



Mick Victor is an incredibly gifted artist. His work has something mysterious, something magical. As he worked his way through different styles and mediums and experimented with photography, graphics, and illustration, he found his way to the mixed media world.

Fun fact: he also studied and worked in the orchestra, sound design, and composition field. Every single one of his series is unique and absolutely beautiful. If you feel more drawn to darker, poetic imagery then the Blacksmith is for you. If you enjoy vibrant colors and shapes the Graden Party is the place for you. If you so happen to enjoy a bit of both then go and check out his Cities series. I dare to say there is something for everyone in Mick’s collection of work.

I am beyond happy that I was able to interview him and I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did, dear reader.



What do you feel when experiencing and creating art?

In any exhibition or gallery, I'm likely drawn first to the composition and execution of someone's work. I'm always so excited to see work that accomplishes a big idea or feeling with a certain sense of economy, sometimes just a few lines, colors, and shapes. It's the work of someone who has been doing this a long time and likes poetry, he or she has removed all the extra words not needed to present the visual story. What I feel in personally creating art is a great freedom to be in that space on the paper where the art is coming to life. It may begin in almost any fashion but once it has a heartbeat there's also an obligation to make it speak clearly and with a certain amount of impact. In mixed media, I have a lot of tools to use, but I'm trying to make sure they're all working together to give the piece a singular voice of its own.



If you would need to choose which is your favorite piece or series of yours? Why?

More recently pieces like "Stacoma, "Uncertain Spring" and "Manhattan Project" hold my interest quite well. They each seem to have succeeded in different ways, but again, there's a clear voice involved, and I enjoy talking with other artists and clients about them.



Walk us through your process from the idea to the finished process.

It begins at my work table where I have papers, wood, glass, newspapers, and literally hundreds of odd shapes I might press into pastels, acrylics, oils, and flower fragments. I'm looking for an initial overall shape and color combination that I can develop further. I'm very attracted to chaos,
So next is using that approach to define the reaches and internal sections. I tend to personify the individual elements I'm adding and believe that they have their own preference for where they want to be in the work. Eventually, the heart of the piece is beating on its own and then it's a matter of working toward the completion without going too far.



Please tell us a bit about your childhood and upbringing.

I grew up in the Midwest with a large family where I was surrounded by open fields and big entertaining skies. Studied music composition, performance, and theatre in college, traveled, studied more in London, and eventually was hired by a large corporation to build a technical products training program for the US. In making materials with incredible artists and designers
I grew to love the world of art and design. I still do some consulting for visual branding and space design but mostly spend most of my time in my own studio working.



How did art become your focus in life?

After being so influenced by the designers I worked with, I felt it was time to speak in my own voice, and have been dedicated to this path for the last 10-12 years.



I am a big fan of your “Blacksmith” series, which stands out from your other mixed media work. It is more dreamlike and desaturated in comparison to your other very colorful and rather energetic work. What was the inspiration behind it?

My daughter and I were on a driving trip in Northern California and in a small town came across a blacksmith shop. She is a very good photographer as well and we both shot for about an hour in the different areas that appealed to us. I came back to the studio and chose an exterior image of a wall and decided I would use it as a basic background canvas for 5 different new works, always starting from that shot as a beginning. The ideas for the 5 different works really came from the texture I could see in the initial shot. I wanted to tell a completely different story each time and the coloring as you suggested, I chose to be more muted.



A lot of your work seems to be motivated by the different towns you have traveled to. Which cities inspired your “Cities” series? Are they based on specific buildings/spaces?

I'm fascinated with city skylines. I think it began at age 19 when I visited New York City for the first time and saw that the tops of buildings all placed together were very appealing to me as a visual unto itself. As the day goes by the lighting, shadows, and color of the sky change eventually rendering the skyline into a silhouette. As I began making different random "cities"
I also imagined what was happening inside the buildings and how they were all thriving together. Once I figured out a general working process, I could stretch the idea almost as far.
As I wanted to. I enjoy working in this series immensely as each piece is a storytelling tool not just for the imaginary structures but for the lives that are happening there.



During your career, you have worked with architectural and design firms. You not only work with mixed media, but you are also a very talented photographer, and you have been part of big showcases such as the Other Art Fair.

What would you say are the differences between being commissioned to create specific artworks versus creating art completely based on your own decisions? And do you prefer the collaborating process with businesses to simply just creating something? I do love working alone in the studio with the freedom to pursue any direction a piece might be taking me, but the collaboration of working with architecture and design firms is wonderfully different from initiating a whole new independent idea in my studio. I love solving problems and communicating ideas with visual design tools because it's often about the work of speaking to different people for different reasons within the course of the project. You also get the opportunity to have other very talented people contributing at the same time to something with their trained visions and expertise. Then it all must work together without egos getting.
On the way. Personally, I'm happier when my contributions are only one small part of the bigger picture.



You are part of a program called “Window Works: that helps curate empty storefront windows and brings new life and beauty to an otherwise sad and plain space. How did you get connected with this program and can you tell us more about it?

The Window Works program started during the Pandemic because there were so many people going out of business and all that remained in their space was just this emptiness that reinforced every day how bad the whole situation was. I know a lot of artists and thought we could find a way to put their work in the windows of empty spaces, perhaps add a little bit of lighting, and give people a reason to wander around these business districts and enjoy the company of others doing the same thing. It worked very well. A lot of new art was seen and many visitors, for the first time, found out how enjoyable art could be.



What is next? Do you have any shows or events coming up in the future?

I've just completed quite a few exhibitions as well as working with 2-3 clients for new artworks for their homes. Thankfully my audience is growing thanks to exhibitions like The Other Art Fair so there are more new clients to work with both here in Los Angeles and potentially for a very involved project in Europe this spring.