This past year has been a whirlwind of activity for the 25-year-old artist as he created more than a dozen pieces for the Tunxis exhibit, on display until Nov. 5, and finished up his first book, entitled "Art is Dead: A Manifesto for Revolution on the Visual Arts." Mikulski, an art teacher at Tunxis, has been showing his abstract expressionist paintings and mixed-media sculptures - paintings an a 3-D surface - at galleries throughout New England the past two years.
But rewind the clock a few years and Mikulski had yet to put brush to canvas, or any other surface. Though he cultivated his artistic passion while earning a Master's in Architecture from Norwich University in Vermont, he didn't paint in college. He frequented the campus library, spending late nights researching art but he wasn't interested in earning a degree in the field. Nevertheless, not long after graduating, he decided to pursue art rather than archictecture.
"I love art," Mikulski said. "I'm obsessed with art. I thought architecture was a bit too technical and I wanted to do something that was a little bit freer and more expressive."
When Mikulski opened up his first studio, it was love at first stroke.
"I was renting a house in Enfield and I created a studio in the basement," he said. "I went down there and I bought a canvas, bought some paints and as soon I started manipulating that canvas, I was hooked."
Mikulski, a Rocky Hill native who is now living in Wallingford, said he derives inspiration from contemporary artists, many of whom are unknown to the common public, as well as artists from the mid 20th-century. The influence of one of them, Jackson Pollock, arguably the most well-known abstract expressionist, can be seen in Mikulski's mixed-media sculptures at the Tunxis exhibit. The seven sculptures are named negative one, negative two, etc., which is a backward homage to the postive-numeral names Pollock often gave his paintings.
Mikulski's sculptures, as well as his paintings, are not easily described or defined. And that, Mikulski said, is purposely done. Many of the pieces are bursting with color, including a painting entitled "Four Seasons" where there are four canvases placed in a row. One canvas, however, has a black-and-white look, seemingly depicting winter.
The time it takes to construct a piece varies. Mikulski said sometimes it takes a few days while other times it can take a month or more, particularly if it's a complex mixed-media sculpture that requires lots of cutting and mounting.
While, like any artist, he has his favorite pieces, Mikulski said he doesn't really get attached to his work.
"You do it, you put everything you have into it and then its kind of over," he said. "It just becomes a memory and I don't really want to relive what I went through to make it."
Moving forward, Mikulski plans to get involved in what he called the Green Revolution. That movement, he said, is about creating aesthetically-pleasing art out of energy-efficient materials, such as solar panels.
For more on Mikulski's art and future exhibits, visit www.tedmikulski.com. There is no charge to view Mikulski's work at the Barnes-Franklin Art Gallery, open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday.