Artist Spotlight

Michael Miro relocated to Taos in 2004 from the San Francisco Bay Area.  He served in the US Air Force from 1970 to 1974 where he learned darkroom and printing technology. Upon leaving service he got a job in a union commercial printshop. With the aid of the GI Bill went to college for 5 years. Though art was always his primary interest and study, his educational background was in the social and physical sciences and history. In the 1980’s he started his own print shop, while retaining his union job, and began publishing an art and music magazine through the 1990’s. In 2001 Michael married and after 9/11 he and his wife came to New Mexico. They fell in love with New Mexico and they began the process of relocating to Taos. In 2005 upon moving to Taos he took up art glass fusing as a his medium of choice. He built his first glass studio in 2006. In 2008, Michael joined other glass artists to organize the Taos Art Glass Invitational, Bringing glass arts and collectors to Taos Art Galleries to show the wide variety of art glass. In 2009 he was a Founding Director of the Taos Institute for Glass Arts where he taught glass fusing and served as a Board Member of Glass Alliance-New Mexico. In 2010 he restored an old building on the Paseo in Ranchos De Taos and created a new glass studio and showroom for his work, Topsy Art Glass Studio and Gallery. In 2013 he was a Founding Member of the Taos Arts Council until 2019. Since then his soul focus has been on his glasswork and studio.

I work in kiln formed glass because the process is not immediate like painting or glassblowing but involves the transmutation of the medium through multiple steps. Through multiple firings the glass is transformed by time, rate and temperature changing the molecular structure of the glass as it goes through the process. I think of my kiln as a 1,500º Pandora’s Box of quantum potentialities which are not realized until the lid is raised. My approach to creating work is to push the limits within myself and the medium far beyond my original vision. Whether in design, abstract or figurative work the subject matter comes from what fascinates me at the time. I work in series oriented projects usually based on subjects I am studying. The history of traditional and contemporary Asia has been some of my past subjects. My current work is inspired by the study of sacred geometry and the Plutonic solids. This work on display is a compilation of past and current works. My art and functional pieces can be viewed at The New Alhambra, Soul Inspired Living which represents me in Taos.  It is located at 132 Kit Carson Road, Taos, New Mexico.