bud root-michels - painter

Bud Root – Michels’ early work as a commercial illustrator, graphic artist and logo designer employed the same tools as his abstract and realistic paintings today: strong graphic design, balance and weight, color theory, light and dark, yin and yang. In 1974-94 he ran the Bud Root Commercial Art and Graphic Design Studio in Anchorage, Alaska with local and international Fortune 500 clients.

At a promising 14, he enrolled in the two-year Art Instruction Inc. Graphic Design and Illustration Correspondence Course out of Chicago, Illinois. Later at the Woodbury Art College in Los Angeles he studied color theory, architectural rendering, art history and illustration. In 1986 studied he taught art courses at the University of Alaska.

1999 Bud worked at the Allen Houser Foundry on waxes of Allan’s sculptures. He was inspired by the intent of each curve, crevice, and mystery in this master’s work and the concept of including the viewer as co-creator. Though Allan passed in 1994, Bud experienced him as a mentor. At Philip Hazous’s request, Bud sculpted Allan’s life size portrait and participated in casting it. This deepened Bud’s pride in his own Native – American Heritage as a one quarter Cherokee. This sculpture was displayed in the Native American Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C.

Bud’s paintings and sculpture are always graphically strong. He explored nature’s power in a series of towering dust devils, water spouts, and water flowing over rocks. Another series depict increasingly rare birds, tigers, leopards, polar bears, and their protectors. His newest works explore the dynamic power of wild horses.

Bud’s paintings and sculptures are included in private and corporate collections in Alaska, Arizona, California, New Mexico, New York and Washington D.C.