Gallery
About
Michael Gard was born in London in 1971 and moved to the US in 1994. He has maintained a full-time art studio since 1995. For twenty five years he worked exclusively in woven wire.
During that time he explored various secondary bodies of work, selected from dozens of art ideas which frequently come to him, but none fully succeeded. Then, his regular schedule of art shows paused during the Covid 19 pandemic, giving him time to pursue one of these ideas more intensely. In August of 2020, he made his first mandala out of dried flowers and insect wings.
Mandala is the Sanskrit word for circle. The term was coined by Carl Jung to describe repetitive circular artworks common to many cultures. Michael painstakingly assembles his mandalas primarily from flowers and insects on top of a plywood substrate that he paints or coats with metallic leaf. Many layers of clear epoxy resin preserve and freeze everything in place.
Our butterflies and moths are sustainably sourced from farms primarily in Peru and Indonesia, where they complete their natural life cycles in protected environments—free from predators and parasites. Butterfly farming is endorsed by organizations like the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), as it helps protect ecosystems that benefit countless species.
Contacts
Contacts
Michael travels throughout the country and is available for private home consultations by appointment.
