Mike McClellan caught the "art bug" rather late in life, having spent many years in the construction and restaurant business. he has always enjoyed creating tangible things, and working with his hands, so the transition from building to sculpture was natural progression. not surprisingly, his work is in the most substantial material, stone, and his forms draw inspiration from architectural shape and proportion.
For the present, McClellan finds his strongest visual connections to the work of Hepworth, Brancusi and Noguchi. his forms are most characterized by bold, sweeping forms, innovative use of colored stone, and the edgy balance between the weight of the rock and the air that flows through and around the negative spaces in his shapes.
McClellan has lived in Santa Cruz most of his life, and the cultural and artistic synthesis of his work is a most " Santa Cruz" kind of phenomenon, taking the various threads and weaving them into something unique and pleasing.