Mike Ivy

Born and raised in Austin, Texas, I was an Art teacher in Pflugerville ISD for

25 years. Drawing has been my passion since early childhood.

As a child, I was a voracious little artist with delusions of grandeur. I began

drawing pictures and later comic books of Space Dog around the time I saw Star

Wars in the summer of 1977. Five years later, I was a 1-boy comic book empire

with several series and a raving audience of 1.

Throughout high school and college, I went through several phases as an artist,

ultimately identifying myself as an Abstract Expressionist Surrealist, with a

fair amount of hubris. However, it was when I found myself coaching and helping

fellow art students at Southwest Texas State University that I developed an

interest in Art Education.

Teaching Art allowed me to continue growing and developing as an artist,

inspired by the many artists I introduced to my students, especially Edward

Gorey and Charles M. Schulz, as well as by the many young artists I had the

opportunity to teach. It was while reading a biography of Gorey and a volume of

Schulz's Complete Peanuts that I came up with the idea of "My 8-Year-Old Self."

Now I've come full circle, drawing Space Dog as part of My 8-Year-Old Self's

fantasy adventures. Once again, I'm a voracious, but not so little, artist,

doing my best to keep the hubris and grandiose delusions at bay, drawing about

my passions...