Michael Garfield

User Bio

Trained in paleontology and scientific illustration only to become a live painter, essayist, and avant-guitarist/songwriter, Michael's work is a map of the evolutionary landscape and our place in it...a living demonstration that everything is equally art, science, and spiritual practice.

----- MUSIC -----

Michael Garfield is on a mission to move you. Not content to merely push the boundaries of acoustic guitar technique, his unusual versatility – alternately wielding instrumental etudes, heart-spearing ballads, and hypnotic acoustic-electronic loopscapes – pulls audiences deeper into the paradox-blessing of human existence, often in the same breath. In any of its manifestations, Michael's music celebrates the mystery of life and love, restoring our wonder at the vastness of it all.

----- LIVE ART -----

Michael Garfield is the Indiana Jones of live painting. Since November of 2007, he has set up his easel at events in a legendary range of situations, from raging basement clubs to NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Airfield, the Costa Rican rainforest to the deep Nevada desert – both onstage and off, and alongside internationally renowned visionary artists Alex & Allyson Grey, Mark Henson, Kris D, J Garcia, Oliver Vernon, Android Jones, Amanda Sage, and Mars-1. Michael’s improvised live paintings are hand-illustrated with pens (and without computers or measuring tools) during concerts. Reflecting his training as a scientific illustrator, Michael’s live art is a field guide to the beings that emerge at the energetic nexuses of live music…