Shine Showcase: Michael Platt

Welcome to the newest SHINE SHOWCASE!

Each week I  select a "creative" member of our group to showcase on our site by making them a "Feature". This means that one of their works (I choose) will be shared with everyone along with a brief bio.   This week please welcome Michael Platt from the beautiful state of Illinois where his three cats watch him compose and create his wonderful work. 

Michael Platt is one of those creatives whose imagination reaches into many areas. Among these are collage, engraving, carving, songwriting, and stories. He tells me, “I have an unpublished book and an unpublished collection of short stories. I create costumes and I create sound art."

Lately Michael has been spending most of his free time drawing (he prefers colored pencils) or reworking and editing the book he wrote several years ago.    Of his growth as a creative Michael shares: "I have evolved a strange and rather avant-garde style of imagery heavy narrative that makes use of puns, spoonerisms, double entendres and other word plays, including made up words, to create an entertaining work that is to be enjoyed for the reading itself and not the story line, plot, development or characters."  

 Michael's artistic success spans many areas including, but not limited to, landscapes, portraits and animals. And much of this is commissioned work!   What kind of work does he produce for his own pleasure? He prefers abstract design. "I draw mandalas (center oriented pictures), which are beautiful and intense and have taken up to six years to complete. I enjoy utilizing graph paper for this, coloring in individual squares in geometric, concentric patterns, creating a sharply defined and balanced piece. I also create random, abstract work that is generally characterized by great detail."  

 Did I say Michael has a variety of artistic interests? Thought so...    

Photographing both nature and manmade subjects, he uses a 35 millimeter single lens reflex, a 2 and ¼ inch format and digital cameras.   This avid volleyball player, who is a self taught artist, also makes magnet art from his drawings and photography. He calls the latter "Magkinetix", (the name also of his space here on Gather) and describes it as his personal way of “finding wonder in placing a variety of magnets together to make an overall larger, transformational creation. My refrigerator has become a cool magnet display (if you'll pardon the expression!)." 

What does Michael want you to know about his why he creates? “I create to satisfy an inner drive that prods me to communicate the ways I see the world, to share my impressions of spirituality, beauty, relationships and humor with others. I strive to stimulate creative thinking, to spark someone into looking at something in a way that they had not done before." 

I think one of Michael’s favorite quotes, which is from William Blake's Auguries of Innocence, reveals much about his creative focus:

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
To hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.  

If you'll visit Michael at this link  Michael Platt | Gather you'll be able to explore his many talents for yourself. From there I have selected the following beautiful tribute piece honoring his mother- in law upon learning of her teminal illness some years ago: 

 The Heart Of A Family (c) Michael Platt 

Past, present, future, always, a light that beams and glows,

Radiates from loving kinship as child is born and grows;

A torch that's held and handed down from heart to heart to heart,

Each generation passing on as new ones get their start.   

A family is a living thing, evolving through the years,

Accumulating memories of laughter and of tears;

The love that burns from bright within reflects and intertwines

From parents down to children as families branch in lines.   

And from the twining grows the flame, each child a strand to tie,

Perpetuated on beyond the reach of mortal eye;

We see the spread of light we share is held and handed on,

So when our torch is passed we know our flame will not be gone.   

A Mother holds a family like the sun is held by sky,

She lit the flame we each one keep from birth until we die;

Rejoice, therefore, from old to young, your love will never part,

For from a Mother comes the fire that binds a family's heart.   

Have a SHINING day! 

(c) Pamela Tyree Griffin

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