COVER STORY
MIKE WIMMER
Taking up residence
MIKE WIMMER BECOMES SKIRVIN HOTEL’S NEW HOUSE ARTIST
BY BRANDY MCDONNELL For LOOKatOKC
Driving back and forth to work, Mike Wimmer saw the signs. “Will work for food.” “Will work for help.” “Will work for a hand up, not a handout.” The messages — and the people holding them — moved him. “I love humanity. I just love people. … And it just started making me think, ‘What is it that I work for? I mean, really. What do I really work for? Not just a paycheck. What is it that I use my time and my talents and my passions for?’ So I started asking others, friends, too. And it just became this project, and I became very fascinated with it,” the Oklahoma artist said. “It’s almost like a mission statement on a cardboard sign when you think about it.” With his new studio space on a prime corner of downtown, the nationally recognized painter and illustrator can spot more people to inspire his new portrait series. Wimmer, 55, is the 2016-17 artist
Mike Wimmer paints in his art studio inside the Skirvin Hilton Hotel. [PHOTO BY DOUG HOKE]
Page 16
May 18 - May 31, 2017
in residence at the Skirvin Hilton Hotel, where he will be working through October in the airy studio in the northwest corner of the landmark hotel’s first floor. “I’ve loved it. I love the energy being downtown. I have these gigantic windows that allow me to just kind of sneak peek what’s going on in the world,” Wimmer said. “I enjoy meeting new people anyway, so this is kind of the perfect venue for it.” Finding SPACE Formally known as the Skirvin Paseo Artist Creativity Exposition, or SPACE, the residency is a partnership between the historic downtown hotel and the Paseo Arts Association, which developed the artist criteria and handles the formal selection process. “It’s exciting to have a different artist every year, and one as accomplished as Mike Wimmer is sure to please the hotel’s guests and the downtown crowd,” Paseo Arts Association Executive Director
Skirvin Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City. [PHOTO BY JIM BECKEL]
LOOKATOKC.COM