About

My name is Michael Joseph Kosirowski and I currently live and work in the Chicago suburbs, which is where I have spent the majority of my life. My academic career was not focused on art, but on the social sciences, particularly history. I graduated from Illinois State University in 2016 with a degree in History and Political Science and around this time began working for my local historical society, where I curated exhibits and helped with museum archives. Later on I worked as an educator at a Chicagoland living history museum conducting presentations on 19th century Illinois history to school groups. It was around this time that I found painting as a form of expression that was personal and gave me a creative outlet to pursue. This interest grew into a passion during the two years I lived in the Bay Area working at an art and design university in San Francisco.

Ever since I was very young I felt I always had a creative side to myself, but once I began High School I had lost interest in finding the time to pursue any kind of creative outlet. Once I began painting after college I tended to focus on copying historical paintings or painting still life pictures. The paintings weren’t great, but I saw the potential to get better, and once I found that I could develop my skills I began to read a lot of books and did a lot of painting. Over the years I have become obsessed with the process of painting, and trying to solve the problems that arise when trying to capture a scene. I currently teach history in the Northern suburbs of Chicago, so it can be a struggle to fit in time to paint, but when I do find the time, even if for 20 minutes, I am always grateful I did. Most of my work centers around locations I have traveled to over the years and landscapes which have always had an impact on me.