The masks presented in this minimal visual survey were created between the years of 1980 and 2004. Some are accurately dated, some are not.

     In view of his exposure to both primitive and contemporary art at a young age, Michael has been making masks out of a wide variety of mixed media for many years. Masks, among his various other creative endeavors, have engaged his attention consistantly for more than forty years.

     The source influences, in these sculptures, may refer to diverse geographies and cultures, although few of his masks were actually created to be worn. They reflect, rather, his consuming interest in both the iconic and metaphysical considerations of individuals (and civilizations) to represent, in some fashion, the nexus of universal perceptions. Whether carved in wood, hand built in clay, or cast in bronze, each mask is an individual and unique expression: each is animated by a profound interest in the causal effects of nature and his own extremely vivid imagination.

     In innumerable cultures throughout the world, masks have had obvious ritual significance. This ritualistic relevance has usually been passed from a master to an apprentice with little formal, or intuitive, variation. One could easily imagine the face of George Bush, for example, replicated perpetually into the future in order to instruct the divine interests of material manipulation and imperialism.

     What you view here is an extremely personal journey into the varied realms of human consciousness. There are no subtly altered variations on historical archetypes; each of these masks is a spontaneous emotional and psychological creation. There could be no duplicates.

William Scott Barrett, Berkeley, California