Artist Profile: Mike Kendall

Mike Kendall is a sculptor whose go-to medium is welded steel, but his favorite medium is mixed media.

"There's more excitement, more surprises in it," he said. "I've done metalwork for so long that doing the mixed media brings a youthful enthusiasm back to my work."

He is inspired by Hieronymus Bosch, a Northern Renaissance artist known for his highly detailed proto-surrealistic landscapes exploding with countless tiny horrors. Kendall explained that with his work he is "creating my own worlds."

"As a child everything seemed so boring," he said. "Imagination was a way to bring life to a world I generally found lacking."

He also finds inspiration in the works of Spanish artist Antoni Gaudi and Swiss surrealist H.R. Giger.

Kendall has lived and worked in Benicia since 1991, the year he got his "first real studio and became a real studio artist, with a dedicated workspace" in the Yuba building with his wife and daughter. They lived in the Yuba for two years before it flooded, and have spent the last 17 years living and working in the historical Arsenal District.

He was drawn to Benicia by an ad in the paper for that very studio in the Yuba building. He had never heard of a live-work studio before he came across the ad; he came to see the space, signed the lease, and the first night they stayed he parked his truck inside.

When Kendall isn't making art, he helps his wife with her small upholstery business, and runs the BANG! List, an artist-to-artist networking and opportunities e-mail newsletter.

His work is on display and for sale at his studio at 933 Jackson St. in Benicia, California.