About 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...