We Check in With New York Based Artist Michael Alan

New York based artist, musician and performer Michael Alan is a dear friend of The Aither – Not only do we love everything Mike does creatively, he’s also a big supporter of, and contributor to, everything that we do as well!
After first interviewing Mike in depth back in March 2019, we once again sent Mike some questions to answer, to see what he is up to and how he is going.

A recent photo of Mike and his Mom in New York City.

Take a read of our 5th interview with Michael, below…
(You can read all our previous interviews with Mike, via the links at the bottom of this post.)

How have you, Jadda and your mom been since we last spoke in January 2021?

We created a non conventional living / art space – We took the idea of conventional family living with a separate art studio and flipped it on its head.
Jadda and I sat down and diagramed for many years how we could find and transform a two bedroom apartment into a centralized multifunctional space, a space that functions as an apartment, elder care, and as an art loving project. We are living as art. It’s a space where we make art around the clock.
Our apartment has been turned into a mini museum where my mom and Jadda curated thousands of works. More works are archived away in closets and alternative storage nooks.
We changed the lighting and the general layout of how a space works. We have re-approached the way we are conditioned to think about how a space functions.

It’s been very positive as elder care in America is horrid.

I’m grateful to be doing this!

Various photos of Mike’s home and working space. Which he shares with his partner Jadda, his mom and a whole lot of art.

… have you been working on any new music?

Funny that you ask, I spent a long time gathering and organizing a bunch of our songs recently. We have plans of putting it out in near future. You can always go to my Bandcamp where we have four albums up.

Our music is a crazy fun extension of my art.
The sounds are sound collages, noise, punk. The Living Installation!

…and any major life events you would care to share?

Dealing with life as it comes, trying to take care of my mom, my health and keeping on making art, art, art.

Mike’s mom holding one of his recent works.

We know you have recently decided to delve into the NFT game…

– What led you to take that plunge?

Jadda Cat and Matt from OpenSea pushed me to leave my comfort zone dip my toes into the digital art world. The final reason for me to crossover was the idea of being supported for my images.
As artists we post so much free content and NFTs are a way to generate some income, spread the reach.

It’s nice to see people supporting this. It allows for more work to be made.
Support living artists.

– And what are your thoughts about NFTs generally?

If it’s good art it’s good art.

I want to share the energy of my art in whatever way works for people, whether its an original piece, a print or an NFT. Art is about communication and NFTs are another way to open up the conversation, we have to be careful as many can be grifters, so look with clear eyes.
Let’s change the art world!

Currently we are getting ready to do a new drop with SuperRare.

Who are some new artists, musicians and writers you have recently discovered and are enjoying?

This is kinda what’s been on my mind lately..

Jadda Cat! Cram! My guy Norman Reedus! Atmosphere! Slash FTR! Chris RWK! BAT!
Graffitiman937, Ori Carino, Rebecca Goyette, Will Suarez, Tom Manco, Deathwish, ap:42, Ramsey Jones, Kevin Copeland, Nurse with Wound, Jeremiah Moss.

… and what is it about each of them that you so dig?

They vibes.

How’s your longtime hometown of New York going these days? – Almost three quarters into 2022…

It’s a new city that changes way to fast, so many people have left.
Every pizza is 2 bucks more over night.
The rich are richer.
The struggling struggle more to survive.

New York is coming out of plague times and lockdown and there’s more energy in the streets.
Jadda Cat and I are out a lot in different areas doing our thing, trying to turn the energy positive with art. We sure do see our share crazy stuff but that gets pulled into the art.
Occasionally people try and exploit us to generate content so we gotta stay alert!