Daily Painters Guild - Mick McGinty (original) (raw)

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Midwest artist, Mick McGinty was born and raised in Nebraska, and although he doesn't remember drawing that much as a small child, he was nicknamed “doodler” for his artistic ability by his grandma. After graduating from High School in '71 he served the next 2 years in the army, and upon returning home in '74,he found the time was right to move to California to begin pursuing his dream of becoming an artist. He started off at Knotts Berry Farm as a pastel portrait artist but quickly realized it was a higher level of artistic achievement that he was after, so for the next three years he drew at Knotts and attended Fullerton Junior College and then moved to Pasadena to finish at Art Center College of Design. He graduated from the Art Center with Great Distinction in 1979 with a BFA degree.

He began his illustration career at one of the busiest design studios in L.A., Willardson & White. For the next 4 years he painted alongside two great friends, Chris Hopkins and Rick Brown, renowned illustrators, who together enjoyed grinding out a ton of illustration campaigns amidst the steady traffic of Hollywood stars and musicians. Album covers, movie posters and corporate campaigns such as Nike were always on the drawing boards there. It was the most exciting and rewarding time of my young career, but in 1983 it was time to move on and establish an identity of his own in the illustration world.

From 1983 until now, he has done numerous movie posters including Dragnet, Harry and the Henderson's, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Some of the album covers in his portfolio include .38 Special, Earth Wind and Fire, Police and the final cover for Tommy James (not my fault). He also did numerous billboard campaigns for the entertainment industry such as Magic Mountain and Universal Studios. He was the original artist for the Joe Camel campaign in the 80’s as well as the creator of the inaugural MTV poster in 1981. He created the Superbowl XXXIV poster in 2000 as well as doing numerous projects for Reebok, Kraft, Budweiser, and a wide range of other famous brands.

He was nominated for a CLEO award in 1980.

I continue to take on select projects today, but save most of my painting time to create works in oil on subjects I hope are going to be as varied as my illustration career. I feel as though I have just skimmed the surface of a promising Fine Art career, and am looking forward to experimenting and discoveries in this new process of image making.

His artwork has been and continues to be collected throughout the country and overseas, either through commissions or sales through Ebay. He lives with his wife Kerry, in Dakota Dunes, South Dakota and they are in the process of trying to relocate to the Southwest to be nearer to their three children and growing number of grandchildren.