The tap-tap-tap sound of the mallet against the wood and the aroma of the wood itself gave Mike Medow the euphoric high necessary to create his whimsical masterpieces.
Medow has spent over 50 years of his life carving, chiseling, scraping, sanding, smoothing and sculpting all kinds of wood into anything and everything he imagined.
“I’ve always had this creative bone in my body. Many years ago, I visited an artist’s studio and when I walked in, the smell of wood got to me. I could smell the pine and it felt very familiar. I knew that I had to do this and ran out and bought a couple of chisels,” he said.
Wood Artist
Medow, a self-taught artist, discovered a sense of calmness as he created his wooden sculptures in a meditative state. He has spent countless hours completing a series of over 40 yoga-poses carved in alligator juniper wood, 35 miniature houses, 15 musical stringed instruments and more than 3,000 paintings over the span of his artistic career.
That’s just a few of the things he has produced. Most of his work has been dispersed to family and friends; others have been sold to clients and what remains is a vast collection that blankets his home that he shares with his wife, Paula.
Each day, he keeps working, sketching out ideas and figuring out new ways to create what he imagined. At age 77, Medow says he’s having the time of his life.
New Botero-Style Work
During COVID-19 Medow says he was in lockdown and wanted to create something that made him happy. He chose to paint bigger-than-life cactus.
“I have this big agave growing in my backyard, and it has new sprouts popping up so I replanted them and this idea just popped in my head,” he said. “I decided to paint enormous cacti that took over the whole canvas — Botero style.”
Medow is referring to renowned Colombian artist Fernando Botero, one of his favorite artists, who painted life-size figures with volume and sensuality of form. He explains the differences between his paintings and the wood sculptures he temporarily abandoned in lieu of painting.
“It’s a whole different world — one is more physical and I’m constantly moving. I’m moving when I am painting, too. This [painting] is more like sculpting where I am using my arms and a bigger brush [referring to the huge cacti on the canvas]. It’s just liberating — I love painting bigger and doing simple shapes. I am not doing tiny details as much and to me, it’s more like sculpture work. I don’t think I will go back to doing smaller paintings,” he said
Mixing his own paint colors is a science. A friend gave him a book about understanding color combinations that fascinated him. As he experiments with the paint, he perfects a shade of red that he is quite proud of.
“There is no way I could get this shade of red out of a tube. It is the perfect red. I now understand how to make colors using fewer paints. I never understood why there are 16 tubes of the color green in a store. When mixing blue and other colors, I can make my own shades. I never know what is going to happen, but I don’t stay with a specific formula — it’s too boring.”
Medow is never bored. So far, he has created 10 cacti paintings. Each one is different and several he has painted over a few times because he wasn’t happy with the overall color or the shapes of the pots they were in. But he seems to be proud of his series and has a few more designs before completing this subject. He will then put that idea to rest and move on to his next project.
“I am not quite done with the cacti — I usually keep going until I get it out of my system. I still have some ideas that I want to do with the cacti. I love Botero’s paintings and he never did a cactus, but he did a pear — that touches all sides of the canvas. Maybe I will do a fatter cactus and call it a ‘Fernando Botero Cactus’ — he is my favorite modern painter,” he said.
Several years ago, Medow began working on a miniature doll house that included furniture and lighting for his granddaughter. Afterward, he decided to make another to perfect it. Thirty-five houses later, Medow built a village. Each house became a better model than the last. He began changing the designs and constructing different architectural features — a medieval castle, a hobbit house, a tree house, a house shaped into a shoe, making reference to the old lady in the shoe nursery rhyme, and his prized possession — a model of his brother’s home in Formentera, an island in the Mediterranean Sea near Spain. His collection of whimsical homes was on display at the Sedona Public Library and then exhibited at the Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures in Tucson last year.
Musical Instruments
“Because of COVID, I didn’t go out and it just caused me to create more stuff. I started creating giant cactus paintings, ukuleles, string instruments, cigar box slide guitars, three-string cigar box instruments and learning new things,” he said.
After finding his father’s 90-year-old Johnny Marvin ukulele, crafted with ribbon mahogany, Medow wanted to make his own.
“My dad used to play this when he was 21. My grandmother gave it to him for his birthday in 1928. There were only 100 of these made. My mom told me that he would bring his ukulele to the beach and 100 girls would gather around my father — he was a good-looking guy. Thank goodness my mother never got jealous.”
Inspired by his father’s musical prowess, Medow acquired some pieces of juniper and mesquite wood and watched YouTube videos to learn how the ukulele is constructed. Through trial and error, he feels that he has perfected the sound.
“I have really enjoyed the process,” he said. “Playing the ukulele like my dad did and learning the song that my mom sang to me — it’s a good thing I still have my mind after all these years.”
So far, Medow has made 15 three-string slide guitar boxes, a stand-up bass and several ukuleles using various woods and even a few gourds.
“All you have to do is know the mathematics. A ukulele has a certain measurement, the guitar has a certain measurement, and once you know that, anything else is aesthetics. Everything I created is by trial and error and in the beginning, I surprised myself on how good the sound was.”
The ‘Medow Touch’
For Medow, nothing he creates is simple. He has to add the “Medow touch” to each piece. To keep up with him is an exercise in futility. As he circles the room, picking up whatever item is closest to him at the moment, he describes in detail what inspired him to create it, the challenges involved and how he perfected his work of art. He reaches for his marionettes — life-sized puppets, most with anatomical parts that move with the pull of a string. He finds great humor in watching your reaction as he dances with his wooden creations, singing and doing impressions. This performance is by no means a dress rehearsal. He was introduced to puppetry when he as 8 years old and knew that he could create his own. His collection far surpasses anyone’s imagination.
One can only wonder what goes through his mind. He spends hours in his studio playhouse in his little world creating. Many times he forgets to eat and his wife, Paula, has to remind him it’s dinner time. He will tell you that he is done creating wood sculptures because of the intense labor it takes — but don’t believe him. With chisel in hand, he begins sculpting something else. This time it’s a Bugatti sculpture with wheels that move. He saw the design and knew he had to make one for himself — his new toy. When asked if there is anything that he can’t do, he smiled with a big grin, and replied, “I can’t dance at all anymore. In the past, I won several twist contests. I used to do splits — look at how skinny I am.”
In his 50 years of creating, Medow is amazed at what he has achieved.
“I just make the stuff. I enjoy it just as much as anybody. I’m not afraid to try to make something, because I know that I can figure it out.”
You will never see him sitting idle. A new idea will pop in his head and he will grab one of his notebooks to sketch the idea immediately. He then will grab a piece of wood or his paintbrush or even play a few notes on his ukulele — you know he is a million miles away in his wonderful, whimsical world of Medow.
