MIKE DICKAU: Artist's Statement

My interest in art has been a lifelong journey that has allowed me to blend many interests and mediums. Throughout my childhood, I enjoyed drawing and painting. A fascination with the natural world led me to study science and mathematics. I prepared for a career as a mathematics/science teacher first at UCLA then UC Davis. My interest in art was revived in my 3rd year at UCLA where I studied art and design. I spent a summer working in a print shop before I began teaching in Los Angeles. During that time I was exposed to the process of printing (offset and  xerography), photo reproduction, and binding. 

In the summer of 1976, I studied ceramic sculpture at UC Davis with David Gilhooly and later with Robert Arneson. I began to exhibit my sculpture in 1977. In 1978, I purchased my first 35mm camera to take photographs of my art and I soon became interested in photography as an art form. When I purchased a computer, I became interested in editing and printing photographs for different purposes.

I use a variety of film as well as digital cameras to produce my photographs. My photocollages include frames from movies, filmstrips, video captures, scanned drawings, paintings, objects, and photocopier prints.

My photographs and graphics have been in restaurants, galleries, museums, newspapers, and books. My photos and graphics were used by Bill Griffith in eleven of his Zippy the Pinhead comics, appeared (Ken Burns-style) in the Discovery Channel's "World's 10 Best Roadside Attractions", and won the First Annual Money Talks Tacky Advertising Column Filler Award in the San Francisco Chronicle. Exhibits I have been involved with have sometimes been praised, had work censored (once in Lincoln, California), and was visited by the Secret Service at Columbia College's Glass Curtain Gallery in Chicago, Illinois. 

My life as an artist has been pure joy. I have participated in the Mail Art world since the mid-80's. I design, print, and perforate artistamps and add and pass collages which are sent all over the world.  It has allowed me to develop concepts, network with artists, and to develop new communication skills as technology progresses. Ideally, this world is democratic, collaborative, devoid of commercialism, and pro-creativity. My collaborative efforts with artist/author John Held, Jr. led to the "Back to the Russian Futurists" show at the Mayakovsky Museum in Moscow, Russia in 2003 as well as other venues in Russia, USA, France, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, and South Korea. Our collaborative works have also appeared on Russian and American television, the Internet, and in print. 

I don't care for high art/low art, digital/analog, primitive/high-tech, or commercial/non-commercial considerations. All of them have something to offer. Subject matter has largely been autobiographical and all over the map. Decades of looking through microscopes, telescopes, and cameras has given me a particular set of visual predilections. Editing video, copier art, photographs, and sound files has given me a way to deal with my interests, inner life, and reality.

Exhibits 

Since 1966 in over 270 shows locally, nationally (26 states), and internationally (20 countries) including:

* Memorial Union, UC Davis

* Le Sahuc Gallery, Sacramento, CA

* Candy Store Gallery, Folsom, CA

* A Gallery-Anna Gardner Gallery, Stinson Beach, CA

* Pence Gallery, Davis, CA

* San Francisco Airport: Terminal Connector Gallery, San Francisco, CA 

* Crocker Art Museum Sculpture Park, Sacramento, CA

* Hoffman Gallery, Oregon School of Arts and Crafts, Portland, OR

* School of Art, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

* KuRo, Nurnberg, West Germany

* Claudia Chapline Gallery, Stinson Beach, CA 

* National Museum of Beaux Arts, Havana, Cuba

* The Design Gallery, UC Davis

* The Ink People Center for the Arts, Eureka, CA

* Kawasaki IBM Citizens' Cultural Gallery, Kawasaki City, Japan

* Soloman Dubnick Gallery, Sacramento, CA

* Todd Hughes Fine Art, South Pasadena, CA

* Mayakovsky Museum, Moscow, Russia

* Cultural Center BUZ, Minden Germany

* A. S. Popov Central Museum of Communications, St. Petersburg, Russia

* Barton Gallery, Sacramento, CA

* Atelier Berner, Paris, France

* Academy of Fine Arts, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium

* TAC, Eindhoven, The Netherlandss

* Hari's Gallery, Jeju, South Korea

Education  

Studied at UCLA (1962-1965); UC Davis (B.A. Zoology, 1966); UC Davis (Secondary Teaching Credential, 1967); various summer sessions, workshops, and coursework at UCLA, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, CSU Sacramento, and CSU San Jose (1968-1979)

Teaching     

Los Angeles City School District (1967-1970) 

Grant Joint Union High School District (1970-1999)

* Taught filmmaking for one semester

* Taught mathematics and science

Awards

* Bausch and Lomb Honorary Science Award

* NSF Grant (mathematics)

* CTIIPS Grant (to purchase lenses, laser and holography materials)

* Several art awards  from these organizations or galleries: Placer Art League, Nepenthe Mundi Society, Sacramento Regional Arts Council, California Arts League, Placer County Fair, League of Carmichael Artists, Northern California Arts, Inc., Design Gallery (UC Davis), Ink People Center for the Arts

Collections

Many private collections in North America, Europe, and Japan; MOMA (NY), Pompideau Center (Paris), Swedish Consulate (San Francisco CA), UCLA Library, The Modern Realism Archives, University of Buffalo Poetry/Rare Books Collection, Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Smithsonian Archives of American Art, and the National Postal Museum

Bibliography

Over 100 entries including these selections:

-----,----. Captioned photo. Santa Monica Independent, 1970.

Adams, Kevin. Review of exhibition, Inside Art, June, 1977.

Johnson, Charles. "Local Galleries Exhibit Some Top-Notch Work,"  Sacramento Bee, November, 1977.

Garfinkel, Ada. "Top Artists Display Wares at 'Ceramic Forecast'," Independant-Journal (San Rafael), December 1979.

Fries, Julia. "A Review-Ceramic Show," Point Reyes Light, December, 1980.

Morch, Al. "The Airport Cafe-no tab, no tip, no eating," San Francisco Examiner, April, 1986.

Forney, Darrell. "Mike Dickau- Captain Biology," A Magazine of the Arts-On the Wing, November, 1988.

Dickau, Mike. "Captain Biology Predicts...," Third International Cartoon Symposium Exhibition Catalog, Kagoshima City, Japan, 1988.

Dickau, Mike. "Rebus," Half- Life Network 8, Glassboro, NJ, McLean, 1989.

Dickau, Mike. "Don't Mess with Me, Even! I Gotta New Suit!," Visual and Experimental Poetry, Bulgaria, Sarieff, 1991.

Dickau, Mike. "America's Favorite Poetry (As Seen on TV)," 6th Annual ISCA Quarterly Bookworks Issue Box-O-Books, New York, Neaderland, 1991.

Hill, Laura Weir and Scott. "Ceramics of the First Order on Display in Davis," The Davis Enterprise Weekend, April, 1993. Photo by Mike Dickau.

Henderson, Lisa. "Design Gallery's International  Mask Competition "Face the Nation II" Reveals Suprises," Arts Update, Woodland, CA, 1995.

----,----. "Making Faces," UC Davis Magazine, Vol. 12, No. 4, 1995.

----,----. Who's Who in America 1997-2007, Marquis Who's Who-Reed Reference Publishing Company, New Providence, NJ

----,----. Who's Who in the World 1997-2007, Marquis Who's Who-Reed Reference Publishing Company, New Providence, NJ

Axis of Evil: Perforated Praeter Naturam, Qualiatica Press, Chicago IL, 2004

Dickau, Mike and Held Jr, John. We'll Chop His Suey When He's Gone, Redfoxpress, Dugort, Achil Island, County Mayo, Ireland, 2008.