Michael strives for excellent craftsmanship and fine detail. The three greatest influences on his art are surrealism, cubism and portraiture.

At this point in Michael's career, he’s concerned with trying to make surrealism more effective. He describes himself as a ‘Protest Surrealist’, which has nothing to do with dreams (at least, not consciously), or an attachment to the irrational. He’s often thought that the surrealist movement’s reference to the irrational, although providing the initial impetus, eventually blunted the movement’s full potential.

It seems to Michael to be a much more effective use of surrealism’s visual liberty to employ it in a fully conscious way, raising questions and criticisms of society. This idea also provides lasting themes that people can relate to, whereas many original surrealist paintings appear to be riddles without answers. To his mind, ‘Protest Surrealism’ is a much more hard-hitting concept.

While he’s still enthusiastic about producing portraits and post-Cubist work, for now, Protest Surrealism is Michael’s passion.