Michael Rice, 42, is a self-taught, full-time painter and muralist. But it wasn’t always that way.
His career started in the corporate realm, an unconventional path for many artists, but one he said helped him after he quit his New York City job and moved to Hartford five years ago to pursue art full time.
“I learned some skills along the way that a lot of people that might have gone the fine art route [would not],” Rice said. “You get some communication skills, some interpersonal skills, and an understanding of what clients want — how to work with them.”
Rice was speaking from a project site in New Britain, where his latest canvas is an apartment complex wall. There, he’s painting a stylized portrait that matches the building’s edgy, urban theme.
He recently completed an 18-story mural in Hartford — described as the largest in New England — that used approximately 864 spray paint cans to cover the concrete side of a hotel-turned-apartment building facing I-84 on Morgan Street.
“He has such a unique style,” said Amanda Roy, director of equitable arts advancement at the Greater Hartford Arts Council, which contributed a $50,000 grant to Rice’s Hartford mural. “The forced perspective that he uses and three-dimensional elements of it were something that we were immediately drawn to.”
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She pointed to a robot butterfly mural Rice did in York, Pennsylvania, as one that stood out to her for its gripping style.
Roy said Rice is an artist that’s easier to work with because of his ability to meet deadlines and stay within the parameters of an assignment and budget.
“You like working with artists that are able to do that,” Roy said.
Rice brings an “unprecedented level of detail and creativity,” to the Hartford arts scene, said Matt Conway, executive director of RiseUp, a nonprofit sponsoring and arranging public art installments around the state. “The level of art that Mike has brought to Hartford has really elevated the whole city as an arts community because he’s local here, his studio’s right in Hartford.”
“A lot of times,” Conway added, “cities across the country need to import (artistic) talent. … We’re so lucky here because we have world-class talent right in the Greater Hartford area, Mike Rice being one of the top.”
One of his favorite Rice pieces is a three-dimensional parrot coming out of a wall on Hartford’s Park Street.
Some of Rice’s other work includes the popular Husky mural at Rentschler Field, where the UConn football team plays home games, and signage around Hartford’s Parkville Market.
“I’ve been doing a lot of public art around the area recently, hoping to make some sort of an impact,” Rice said.
The record-setting mural in downtown Hartford — funded by $110,000 in grants and contributions — is of a child holding an open jar with fireflies escaping from it, meant to express hope and wonder. The Husky mural frequently has a line of spectators waiting to take their photo next to it.
“I want it to be something the whole community can enjoy,” Rice said of his work, which is influenced, in part, by the 1980s and 1990s counterculture as well as today’s technological landscape. “I think the mural, and public art in general, can add color, can add a sense of life happening. To me, it almost creates a sense of safety and community.”
Safety, community, color and a sense of happening are all attributes that Hartford’s cityscape could use more of. The COVID-19 pandemic hampered downtown activity with the rise of remote work, leading to a sharp rise in empty office space and storefronts.
But that’s changing, thanks to the efforts of people like Rice, and local groups aiming to advance the cultural milieu of the Hartford area.
‘Broke’ and ‘scared’
Rice went to school for graphic design. After some college, he said he worked in fairly standard corporate jobs, on the creative side, such as advertising, copywriting and design.
He even worked as a recruiter at one point.
Rice recalled when he decided to leave that life, holding a high-paying New York City job with a pleasant, somewhat absent boss — a “great gig” as he explained it.
So why leave?
“I just wasn’t feeling very fulfilled, and I knew I wanted to do something with my hands,” Rice shared.
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In 2018, he quit his job, ended a long-term relationship that was trending toward marriage, moved out of his apartment, and realized he could no longer afford to live in New York.
At the recommendation of a family member, he took his talents to Hartford, working odd jobs adjacent to the art community while he pursued professional artwork.
This included part-time jobs in sign fabricating and art handling, “whatever I could do to scrape by,” he said.
To become an artist, Rice said he knew he’d have to work more for less money, and live a simpler lifestyle.
“I was broke as hell and scared as hell for a number of years, I was terrified. Now I feel it’s the best decision I’ve ever made,” Rice said. “I knew I just wanted to be in that world.”
Thanks to lessons learned in the corporate world — like how to handle client requests, manage different stakeholders, and understand the commercial motives of clients, companies or even nonprofits — Rice has been able to launch his own studio in Hartford.
He does a mix of work, including public and commissioned art, as well as designs for businesses such as restaurants or gyms.
Rice said he’s earning enough revenue to support his lifestyle. He quit the odd jobs and devoted himself full time to art once he was booked with projects for six months in advance.
Now, he’s got an even bigger project backlog.
The public art, he said, is usually a longer process because of the various stakeholders involved. But it’s the work he loves to do the most, especially when clients offer a free space with full creative freedom — an ideal scenario that is difficult to find.
Rice said he’s motivated by pursuing larger and taller murals, with more ambitious designs.
“I haven’t lost any of that fire, which I always lost within a year of any other job,” he said.
He also credits local organizations and the opportunity from federal funding to commission murals and other art around the city.
“This really is meant to increase foot traffic, to give Hartford an identity as an arts-and-culture destination, not only for Connecticut but the whole Northeast region, to bring people downtown and to tell the story of Hartford,” said Conway, the RiseUp executive director.
‘Wildly creative’
Rice prefers to work alone, but sometimes hires help — even his mother has assisted on projects.
She’s also artistic.
“She’s always drawing and making things,” Rice said. “She loves color pencils and she draws all these crazy, realistic flowers, trees and fish.”
His mother’s side of the family inspired his love of art. Growing up in the Baltimore area, where they were involved in the artistic community, they would go up to a family house in Canada, where Rice would meet his aunts, uncles and cousins working on art, sculptures, music or woodworking.
“That whole side of the family is wildly creative,” Rice said.
His advice to others looking to pursue art professionally is to build complementary skill sets through other work, since art likely won’t pay the bills, at least at first.
“Artists need to have professional skills, and be great artists to really be successful,” Conway said. “[Rice] has got that. He knows how to talk to clients. He knows how to be on time. … Those things are really important for artists as well, just like in any career.”
Important skills for a professional artist, Rice said, include an understanding of brand strategy, and how to present your work.
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“Have a cohesive look and feel to some of your work and what you are trying to say, have a message,” Rice explained, while also recognizing that “sometimes you have to sacrifice some of that to fit within other people’s vision, … whatever it is you’re getting paid to do.”
He also recommends that people interested in artistic careers, or any non-traditional trade, think about their path in more open-minded ways.
But one thing’s for sure, he said. If you know you aren’t passionate about what you’re doing, you’re almost always better off pursuing something else that will make you happier.
Today, for Rice, painting is a way to make a living, but it’s also his therapy and passion, he said.
“I can’t even imagine what my life would be like if I was still doing the grind,” Rice said.