TIC Reading February 17, 2007
"Waiting for Godot"

Read a poem by Jim Coppoc , featured in this event.


"Waiting for Godot:" mixed media
Mike Elko

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Mike Elko, Twin Cities artist and printmaker, received a BA and BFA from the University of Minnesota. After years of masquerading as a responsible adult and father, he has returned to printmaking. "If the point was to re-experience the life of a penniless art student, I must say that this has been a roaring success!" He is a member of the Highpoint Printmaking Coop in south Minneapolis, and has shown in local and national juried competitions. A compulsive collector of mid-century ephemera, he uses this material to create contemporary social and political comment with a humorous slant. "Right now I'm trying to convince people that art can be accessible and humorous (and disrespectful), not just dull and ambiguously mysterious." He often turns his prints into 3-dimensional objects or books, and considers text an important part of the process. His solo show at the Susan Hensel Gallery in Minneapolis, titled "We Drove, We Saw, We Ate", was based on ideas and memories about the traditional family car-trip vacation. The Godot waterskiers image was one of a series of digital prints depicting the highlights of the fictional Backside family's trip to see the newly-constructed Omaha Civic Auditorium. (Next year they're going to the Isles at Langerhans State Park.) Mike has work on view at the mnartists.org site as well as those of Highpoint and the Susan Hensel Gallery.