Mike Pooch Pucciarelli
Artist | Professional | Traditional Art

United States

ARTIST formerly known as Michael Pucciarelli is ressurecting Pooch Island from dismantled rides, discarded icons, and forgotten Gods...
Raised on a diet of Ray Harryhausen films, H. P. Lovecraft novels, comics, Walt Disney World and other Florida tourist traps, Pooch paints images that seem to exist in a bizarre afterlife. His art is a visual cocktail of these influences—with a shot of lowbrow culture—shaken and stirred, then served up in a souvenir tiki skull on the Day of the Dead. A self-taught artist, he owes much of his painting skills to over fifteen years of daily tattooing and drawing at his studio Altered State Tattoo in West Palm Beach Florida
His newest work reflects the current concerns of forms of energy, mainly in transportation, by offering up an alternate reality in which steam power is utilized. Drawing upon the visual influence of Jules Verne's renegade submarine, the Nautilus, these steampunk inspired characters are seen at the helm of various ornamented animal like machines, in a sort of symbiosis with nature. Meaning aside, Pooch’s paintings are created to hold the viewer’s attention, which is quite a challenge in today’s TV and computer age. Pooch’s technique is intensive, he paints the devil in the details. His earliest influences were artists like MC Escher, Dali, and HR Giger. Holding the old masters in high regard, Pooch has a strong respect for painters of the Flemish age such as Bosch and Van Eyk--plus modern artists like Todd Schorr, Joe Coleman, Mark Ryden, and Robert Williams, all of whom honor the tradition of highly detailed symbolic works. Pooch's work has been shown at galleries such as Copro Nason in Los Angeles, Roq La Rue in Seattle and Cpop in Detroit.

Current Residence: Florida
Favourite genre of music: metal of all sorts
Favourite photographer: Ross Halfin
Favourite style of art: surreal and lowbrow

www.poochisland.com