Michael McRuiz: Choosing Photography

Guest Author: Beth Downing

Michael McRuiz, Light in the Canyon, Photography

Michael McRuiz has been a photographer by career and now he’s a photographer by choice and by passion. Photographer’s studios are very different than other artists since in many ways, the world is their canvas. But with the digital age, there are a few requisite components that Michael’s immaculate space also contains: a computer (big monitor is a plus, for all the Photoshopping), plotter, and archives of prints.

Michael came to photography in a roundabout kind of way – as a painter. He got his Bachelors and Masters degrees at TU in painting and as he says “was kind of a lazy painter, so I became a photographer.” But anyone who has seen his photographs knows that his painter’s background still speaks strongly. He manipulates scenery from his nature photographs by adding light, color and shapes to make places that don’t actually exist.

Tulsa Art Studio Tour featured artist Michael McRuiz 

And where does he get those photographs to begin with? During the summer, when he’s off from his teaching duties at Tulsa Community College, he travels to places like Glacier National Park and Iceland specifically to places with the right kind of landscape. It’s a far cry from his four years of being a staff photographer at the Tulsa World.

He loved it, saying “at the end of the day, I would put a stack of photos on the editor’s desk and my need would be satisfied.” But now, he says he can make it really fun “since I don’t have to make a living at it.”

See working artists' spaces during the self-guided Tulsa Art Studio Tour April 21 and 22. A Preview exhibition opens March 1, 5-8 pm at the Circle Cinema, 12 S. Lewis in Tulsa.  www.TulsaArtStudioTour.org