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Arts & Entertainment

Former PHS Art Student Is a Ghost in the Machine

We take a look inside the mind of Poway artist Michael Clint.

When the doors of Michael Clint's local studio slide open, the first thing apparent is a myriad of colors and shapes.

The walls, covered in vibrant airbrushed images, appear to unfold, seemingly becoming an intricate living organism complete with painted flesh speckled with realistically illustrated machinery and cogs.

Growing up, Clint was just like any other Poway native. He attended Poway High School and participated in its art program.

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"I never participated in any sports  programs there," Clint said. "I took art as my elective all the way."

When it came to creative projects, Clint found at an early age that he had a taste for the unconventional and fantastic.

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His work space is wondrous, strange and beautiful. Not surprisingly, his work presents many of the same qualities. From illustrations in ink, strange mechanized sculpture, and even modified musical equipment and vehicles, Clint's genius appears to know no restrictions or boundaries.

Clint, 22, has been involved with art his whole life, or for as long as he's known how to wield a pencil.

When it comes to being a creator, he claims to adore the feeling of completion the most. There is a sense of closure for him that accompanies finishing a piece of art that simply cannot be equaled, he said. His favorite subjects are typically forays into real biological matter equipped with grandiose machinery and other supplemented components. This affinity for mechanics and intricacy usually heralds complex and detailed work.

 He finds a large amount of beauty in characterizing the natural functions of anatomy coupled with manmade elements. Think along the lines of androids and other biomechanically engineered marvels. Secondary to this, he also enjoys encorporating  integral facets of his wacky, avant garde humor into many of his designs.

 "A lot of what I find myself creating is rather surreal," Clint said. "I enjoy illustrating anything that stems from and holds a basis in reality but isn't exactly real. Whether I'm capturing the symbiotic mechanics of biological organisms coupled with wiring or strange robots, that's where I feel most at home."

One piece of artwork he displayed was an electric guitar, outfitted with several layers of modeling materials, red paint, and even metal tread plates–the kind you might see at a construction site. The guitar's lovely body and pickups were gilded in metal wiring and embellishments. It even had functioning LED lights that lit up and flashed when you turned them on.

When it comes to commission work, Clint welcomes the idea, saying that if you can think it, he can create it. Currently, he works at his father's fabrication business, but he jokingly stated that getting enough commission work to quit his day job would be nice.

Along with concocting works of art for his own advancement, Clint recently started to involve his art with charity, designing and selling T-shirts emblazoned with a few of his illustrations to friends and family for $10 each,  and forwarding 100 percent of the proceeds to local organizations to help combat child abuse.

"Helping out other people with my art is awesome," Clint said. "Especially when the cause is such a noble one."

Whenever he finds himself in need of inspiration, Clint often ignores much of what mainstream art has to offer.

"Because of the strange nature of the things I depict, there aren't a lot of things in the mainstream media that really resonate with the variety of work I do," Clint said.

So to feed his sense of creativity, he usually relies on Juxtapoz and Hi Fructose magazine to spur the wheels of his active imagination.

The odd and amazing works of talented surrealist artists like Matsui Fuyuko and other courageous pioneers of street art fuel the engines of Clint's passion for innovation.

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