The first time I met Michael Trossman he was dressed as a shepherd.  Alongside him stood a lamb, rather a beefy lamb. Michael held a staff in his right hand, replete with beard and sandals I felt he resembled a Biblical configuration. The sort of image one uses if one is an artist. Later when the image arrived in my mailbox as a Christmas card, I realized I had been duped.  But I felt privileged having seen the orignal shepherd in all his glory at our studio for an ad we were doing.  Michael of course was the art director and could not let such an opportunity wane.  The next thing I knew he was designing a poster for the legendary David Mamet,  it was an Buffalo Nickel for "American Buffalo."  Who would ever hear of this play I thought to myself.  Next,  Mamet asked him to design a second poster for his next play,  "The Water Engine."
 
Michael complied.  Followed by giving up the artwork for auction so that the St. Nicholas Theatre could survive in Chicago.  Of course Bill Macy was in every production, who later blazed his own trails in Hollywood as Mamet had done.  Next Michael was designing artwork for Esquire magazine with a monthly column.  Everyone in Chicago thought Michael was based in New York.  Finally he capitulated and moved to New York's Chelsea area; in fact, living across the street from David Mamet. 
 
Because his art came first,  Michael revelled in the inner sanctums New York provided, from galleries to museums, his art abounded with new faces, new styles and new art.  Yet it somehow remained intrinsic, intrinsically Michael Trossman.  When his logo for Alligator Records grew along with the label and its stable of Blues greats,  Michael was on his way.  Never giving up his Chicago roots, he grew in a way New York artists cannot grow.  He kept Chicago in his pocket, his Nelson Algren back pocket, his Saul Bellow back pocket and Studs Terkel.  The verity of their work affected him and his art.  From his salad days at Chicago's Art Institute, he went from advertising work to fine art; each in order to support his family.  His work easily took top awards in Chicago.  But now New York was his newfound home. Together both cities helped satisfy his thirst for new techniques, newer visions to paint--and acquaint himself with.  Slowly he slipped into a New York status, which he remains to this day. Living on the west side with his wife, Wendy Weil, he continues his art.  From his bucolic retreat  in New England to the buzz of New York's urban rumble,  his work marks the subtle washes and lined reality of work that is seldom matched in its intensity.  Color that catches light and embodies form, one can nearly taste its hues and touch its elixir. 
 
"Art," as Michael once said, " reminds him of his late father, a Russian literature scholar, who told him, "Take your art and tell a story with its richness, color your characters with each brushstroke, but always, he added, make them real."
 
Michael has followed such wisdom from his earliest days as an art student until today when he joins the cyber age with his new site.  He continues to offer his work to the greatest number of people.  "What good is art" he once said, " if it does not reach people?  Eventually one has to leave a museum and venture out--"   Join Michael and his images on a trail from Chicago to New York.  Faces you might remember follow too. Inside his world of art remains the quality of arcane genius, an unspoken language, brought to life on a canvas to endure, as all great art does, boldface and enigmatic. From a shepherd to an artist in one lifetime. Not a career one can scoff at.  Imbibe in his world, search each line for its magic and listen to each voice on canvas come alive. 

Vincent Kamin // Chicago