By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
The reports were flying, a monkey was on the loose in Santa Fe. Artist Mike Quinn set out to sculpt the runaway monkey and attempt to learn how to call the monkey in monkey language. Then the monkey was no longer just a monkey but was a chimpanzee, a dangerous one.
Quinn continued his artistic rendition but discontinued practicing the call as he did not want to bring about an assault from the runaway.
Then reports of the missing chimpanzee began fading in the gossip. In the end, it turned out the reports had been a hoax. However, as a Texas artist, he was inspired to go bigger with the monkey concept, thus grew his close-to-real-like sculpture of a gorilla which sits at the front of his 2.5-acre property.
The gorilla, like all his other outdoor sculptures are first formed with foam, of which he has a generous supply. The foam comes in handy for covering up the water wellhead before a freeze and protecting his citrus trees.
Back to the outdoor sculptures. He designs them so that they can be sat on, stood on, climbed over, basically used as furniture or as a set of stairs for his home or as a decorative piece of art. Yet they are not eternal sculptures. He sculpts the design out of foam then applies fiberglass as the first coat. Next comes a mixture of fiberglass and concrete which makes the art durable.
Giant sculptures are just one of his specialties, since most individuals aren’t looking for life size tikis or weathervanes shaped like an octopus. He provides art lovers with pieces that are more manageable in size.
His primary creatures for sculpting are fish; not your ordinary fish but fish with a grimace which often include their teeth. Fish With Attitude is celebrating its 30th year in business.
Each of Quinn’s fish or other sea creatures is unique. “I make them so that no two are identical,” said Quinn. Over the course of 30 years, he has handmade many molds for his art. The molds have been used repeatedly and seem to have eternal qualities.
Though the molds would indicate that his art can’t be individualized, he shows how he can add a part to one of his creations. For instance, one of his clients requested a fish with an octopus tentacle hanging through the teeth. He also individualizes his work in the painting process giving his frogs and dolphins and well just all his creations a color that fancies him in the moment.
Art has been a part of Quinn’s life since he was a child in Topanga, California. “Everyone in Topanga is creative and talented so I never really thought of myself as special,” said Quinn.
He remembers his mother kept him and his siblings busy with many art projects. “Sometimes I got sick of all the projects she had us doing,” he said.
Back in his youth, he along with buddies would hitchhike up Topanga Mountain, just to skateboard back down. They’d repeat the trek several times in a day.
Quinn’s own children were not very impressed with their dad’s skateboard finesse until he took them back to his hometown. There they saw for themselves the condition of the mountain road he had carefreely navigated on a skateboard.
Topanga holds an adventurous water memory for Quinn. It was the year 1979 and the canyons were overflowing with water from the heavy rains. Rescue units were busy rescuing people, school had been canceled. Of course, for a boy at age 12 no school meant time to go have fun. He got pulled into a water adventure that landed him in an emergency room with two broken ankles.
A helicopter rescue unit first appeared onsite to make the rescue, after his brother had alerted the authorities of his situation. A reporter from the LA Times was part of the team who raced in to help the youngster. “I’ll always remember the reporter, I was shivering, and he gave me his jacket,” shared Quinn.
He wasn’t injured enough for a helicopter rescue so he was hoisted into a basket and carried by several workers out of the canyon. He did make it into the LA Times as part of their coverage of the treacherous flooding.
Life in Topanga ended abruptly for he and one of his brothers right after the floodwaters receded and his ankles were able to carry him rather than a wheelchair. His parents declared they were splitting up and he and his brother were to go live in an unknown place called Seabrook, Texas.
Moving from coastal California to coastal Texas was a huge culture shock. He was a skater and the boys at school just couldn’t relate to him. Plus, his uncle had been a manager for a boy’s reform school, which made for a highly regimented lifestyle.
Within a year his mother moved to Texas and relocated the two boys to a neighborhood in Houston where the kids understood skateboarding and he became the cool, popular kid on the block. His mom was not nearly as regimented as his uncle and life started to feel normal again.
Time for college came. Quinn selected Southwest Texas State University. With a goal on becoming a veterinarian, Quinn had high hopes. But one of the student advisors laid it out for him. “He told me I was never going to make it into vet school and when I asked why he said, ‘you’re a C student,’” said Quinn.
This temporary setback brought him to pursue a commercial art degree. While still a student, he decided to drum up business at Chuys in Austin. “It was raining and all I had was a motorcycle, but I couldn’t miss the appointment, so with my raincoat and some of my fish, I rode into Austin. I had to squeeze the water out of my clothes before I went inside,” shared Quinn.
They loved his work and he put it on their walls. By the end of the first week, every piece had sold. So, he brought new work in every Sunday and every piece flew off the walls into the hands and homes of strangers. Some of those strangers have become collectors.
“His Fish with Attitude first caught my eye in the 90’s. I bought a fish called Oscar and was so impressed that I looked up his website and that started my collection. I still enjoy buying today, his work is always changing. Every item I’ve received was perfectly done,” shared his customer, Don.
With college out of the way, Quinn moved to the coastal area and begin his business. Twenty years ago, he purchased his home with the huge workshop. “I was impressed with the size of the workshop and didn’t really think much about the size of the house,” shared Quinn.
He credits his wife for his success as she runs the business side of his art which allows him to focus on being creative. They have two children, a daughter who is an architectural student at U of H and a 16-year-old son.
