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Early life
Mike Stilkey was born in Tarzana, California, and spent his childhood moving from city to city primarily in the Los Angeles area.Most of his childhood was spent in Malibu Lake, a small town Stilkey describes as a "hippy party community".
When people are looking ahead, I'm looking at the details of the curb…looking at different things."Stilkey's dream of becoming a professional skateboarder was crushed at age 20 after a series of injuries. -
Career
Stilkey's first encounter with art came at age 18.He did not produce graffiti but was influenced by the culture and enjoyed the rebellious spirit of their work. After painting for a few years, working odd jobs, and dealing with a recent suicide attempt by his father, the 24-year-old Stilkey fell into a major depression and had what he called a "mental breakdown". He donated his car, quit his job and promised himself never to work for anyone ever again. -
Career
I was painting on book pages for forever. At the time, I was drawing on books, records or anything else I could find at a thrift store. Eventually, I started drawing on the books themselves. It dawned on me that it might be a good idea to paint down the spines of the books instead of just on the covers. The first one I did I didn't really think much of, but I brought it down to BLK/MRKT, and I remember Jana going crazy over it. -
work
Mike Litter (Mike Stilkey) - American artist from Alta dena, California. Instead of the traditional canvas, paper or wooden base, Mike takes a bunch of books and draws his works directly into their spines. In essence this work is quite challenging and even provocative.
