My emotional response to nature is the springboard for my work. I spontaneously apply fluid pigment to handmade paper. The imaginary landscapes that emerge are shaped by our visible and invisible worlds, as well as memory, resulting in a structured energy that may be abstract, representational, or both.”
Michael Mantell is an actor and artist living and working in Los Angeles. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended the Cleveland Institute of Art as a teen, he was finishing his BFA at Pratt Institute when he began studying acting. He pursued acting jobs while working in art departments at Columbia Records, Esquire Magazine, and Push Pin Studios. He furthered his painting studies at the Art Students League with Abstract Expressionist painter Richard Pousette-Dart. He moved to Los Angeles in 1994 and continued to draw and paint, mostly landscapes, as he built a 35+ year career in film, theater and television. In 2020, he began working with mixed media on handmade paper from Bhutan and Japan. It is a process he continues to explore.