Mike Moore was born April 1952 in St Paul, Minnesota, USA.

As a young boy he attended a catholic school and became a choir alter boy who loved to draw, paint and do sculpture. At 14 years old Mike created his first large sculpture of Abraham Lincoln made from clay plaster cast.

In 1967, Mike, being one of 12 children, travelled to Perth with his mother and 8 of his siblings, leaving 3 back in the States. Mike was 15 years old.

He attended Kalamunda High School, then went onto Governor Stirling where he became prefect captain of the baseball team and played basketball in the Under 18s WA State team.
He attended summer school art workshops at various studios in Darlington surrounded by middle aged women, with him being the only male, and just 16 years old!

During the 1970’s Mike worked in Dampier on the railways, salt lakes and causeways. He then got the travel bug and went off on a ‘hippie trail’ to England, USA, Europe, South East Asia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey.

On his return Mike attended pottery classes at Midland Tech with Jenny Miller and then became a part time pottery teacher along with Matthew Hughes at Foothills High School in Guildford. There, he built a kiln and a home made kick wheel and produced small sculptures and domestic tableware ceramics.

He then put his hand to bricklaying, studied photography and developed his own photos in a home made dark room.

In the 1980’s Mike took up singing and piano lessons and studied music at UWA for 3 years.

In 1983, during the America’s cup, Mike became involved with aboriginal art. Elders from the Yuendumu Community held an exhibition aboard the Achille Lauro in Fremantle and Mike was invited to apply for a job in Yuenduma as an arts coordinator. From there he started painting seriously and held his own exhibition at Gomboc Galleries.

However, this wasn’t enough for Mike, he then thought to turn his hand to screen printing and set up a studio in Sawyers Valley. Through the 80s he entered paintings and prints to numerous exhibitions around Perth.

In 1990 Mike held his own solo exhibition at the Gomboc Gallery for his paintings and a solo print exhibition at Hartung St, Mundaring.

After re-marrying Mike put his art career on hold and took up stone masonry until he retired.

Now he is back doing ceramics and sculpture in his fully equipped ceramics studio in Sawyers Valley.

Mike’s inspiration comes from the Mesopotamia and South American regions and his passion for Celtic and Byzantium imagery. He experiments with the ancient techniques of Egyptian paste and modern paper clay.
 

Mike develops his own clay bodies that are locally sourced in Sawyers Valley, Western Australia. He fires all his own work that include new innovative techniques in Raku and open pit firings.

Mike’s work is unique, innovative and exploratory.