The Early Years
Michael came from a slightly eccentric, creative family. Growing up was rich with music, parties, writing and much storytelling. He started writing short stories and poetry in the early teens. During the late 60's he learnt guitar with a little help from a friend. Although initially self taught piano, he later studied music theory at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Further guitar tuition was undertaken with the late and influential jazz guitarist and composer, Don Andrews. Further down the track in the mid 80's he studied jazz theory and piano by another late and great jazz and classical musician, Richard Holland.
The Hemispheres
During TAFE NSW art and design studies in the late 90's he discoverd Betty Edwards groundbreaking book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Since then Michael has been passionate about the functions of both hemispheres of the brain. The left side generally concerned with logic and the right with creativity.
For 16 years (2001-2017) he was a director, manager and exhbiting artist with the very right leaning brain art cooperative, Curious Art Gallery. He was also a parnter in the photography tution business, Curious Digital Photography (2013-2018) with fellow gallery artist, Tracy Jay.
Curious Art Gallery
Left of centre - School's not quite out
Running parallel to Curious Art's dynamic creative output (2001-2017), Michael finished the Bachelor of Applied Computing (BAC) degree (2013), followed by receiving the award for Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) Honours (First Class) degree 2014. After the close of Curious Art in 2017 and the photography partnership (CDP) in 2018, it was back to school (seriously left of center brain) at Southern Cross University (SCU) Gold Coast, to write up a 450 page PhD thesis.
He was awarded PhD in the Faculty of Business, Law and Arts; School of Business and Tourism; Information Technology in 2024. Currently he is engaged in research as an Adjunct Fellow in the faculty of Business and Law at SCU.
Presentation of PhD Award at Gold Coast Convention Center