Slot Box Collector July - August, 1992

ART THAT IMITATES LIFE
by Big Daddy Love

You can feel the heat of the day with the glaring sunlight reflected on the fins of the '50s car. It's life revisited, brought to you by Mike Carroll, a famed San Francisco Bay area artist who is focusing his attention on a world lost in time, yet brought back to life again by this master artisan. What Mike is doing is re-creating the Santa Clara Valley and the Bay area as it once appeared in the Fabulous '50s.

His artistic qualities call for stark realism. His works are so-o-o realistic in appearance that you swear you are looking at a photograph. In fact, Mike's paintings are done in the photorealistic style, an artistic movement that moved into the Bay area in the late 1960s. It takes Mike months of preparation to finish just one point of interest such as his exceptional depiction of downtown "Old Town" Campbell, California, exactly the way it appeared in 1952. The amazing thing is you have to look even at one brush stroke. As you gaze at the awe at the downtown streetscape, complete with telephone lines, people, cars and trees, you slowly realize that what you are looking at is exactly the way it once appeared!

Mike seeks out old photos from such sources such as old libraries, city archives, or friends who lived in the area in the 1950s.. In addition, he spends many hours of research locating local historical societies and chamber of commence and sitting down the with local residents who remember the the way it was. Every detail of the area must be exact, or he wont be satisfied.

Surprisingly, Mike Carroll is primarily self taught, having taken only two art classes at a local college. He usually works from black and white photographs and uses the information found in his research to determine the exact colors to be used in his paintings. Working alone in his home, Mike begins to transform the materials he obtains into highly sophisticated and careful brush strokes so evenly as much as the striping on the street and brush are correct.

Mike is dedicated to searching out places all across the Bay area that are most remembered by '50s cruisers; especially the drive-ins, hamburger hang-outs and other points of interest that may have been destroyed by overpopulation and city politics. Even though they are lost to us, they live forever in Mike's art.

The nostalgia shop A step Back in Time, in downtown Campbell, is proud to let patrons gaze upon the collection that only Mike Carroll could create. Many of Mike's works are available in matted and framed prints ... all signed and numbered by the artist. If you have a special request you can contact Mike Carroll and discuss a place you remember well. If you have any "American Graffiti" type photographs of the Santa Clara Valley from the late '50s or early '60s that you would like Mike to paint, they may be forwarded to him through A step Back in Time or Slot-Box Collector. The past is not lost as long as Mike Carroll can re-create something for you and everyone else to appreciate.