Where Mountains Bleed Into The Deserts and Drain into the Sea
I create art inspired by The Great American Southwest—a place where mountains bleed into the deserts, deserts drain into the sea and mysteries linger in the shadows. My work blends traditional landscapes with the unseen and the unexplainable, capturing not only what is visible but also what is felt. I’m drawn to natural and supernatural phenomena, the quiet hum of the desert and the strange fleeting moments that stir curiosity. Some pieces are silent, while others are explosive, invoking the juxtaposition of the mundane and the inexplicable moments in life.
My art invites viewers to imagine what lies just beyond the horizon, to explore the mysteries that hover between what we know and what we dream.
Roots and Reverence 
My artistic journey began in childhood influenced by my mother, a talented landscape architect and draftswoman and my father, who sacrificed much for his family as a law enforcement officer. Their dedication and creativity shaped me. Now, my daughter serves as my biggest fan and cheerleader, reminding me every day to keep reaching for new heights.
My formal training started at the Community College of Denver where I gained a foundation in classical techniques from seasoned working artists. This led to my acceptance into the prestigious California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), an institution co-founded by Walt Disney to train animators and visual storytellers. Unfortunately, overwhelming financial burden forced me to leave CalArts before completing my studies, while the experience left a lasting impression I largely consider myself an outsider artist.
The Pull of the West
Leaving CalArts, I moved to Brooklyn, New York where I immersed myself in the vibrant art scene and pursued the artist’s life. Yet, the West called me home again to Laramie, Wyoming where I worked in a small boutique. There, with local tech students as my customers, my interest was rekindled in vehicles and engineering. That interest eventually led me to Arizona where I joined engineers on proving grounds, blending my eye-for-detail with the mechanical in a new way, as a prototype test driver.
Now, I call my creative space “The Winged Wheel Studio,” a name that reflects my fascination with symbolism, motion and the esoteric.
Voices of Mystery 
Much of my creative process is shaped by what I bring from the landscape into my studio, mysterious moments I’ve experienced myself and by what I hear and see during long nights creating. I often would listen to Art Bell whose musings on the paranormal resonate deeply with me. Having experienced my own share of unexplained phenomena I find inspiration in the mysteries he explores, as they echo the questions and wonder that fuel my work. While I indulge deeply in classic Westerns and early cartoons the surreal films of David Lynch often play silently as I paint, their abstract nonverbal tension fuels my imagination.
Artistically I admire the dreamlike landscapes of Maurice Noble, the bold horizons of Maynard Dixon and the vibrant creations of Mary Blair, Paul Julian and Fred Harman. These influences, along with my love of the Southwest and her fellow artists converge in my work to create pieces that are as much about what you feel as what you see.
Between the Natural and the Supernatural
Each piece I create starts with a story or an image: a shadowed mountain, a squirrel silently witnessing a UFO rush through the forest canopy, or the way light bends across a quiet desert plain. My process is both intuitive and meditative, where deliberate details meet spontaneous inspiration.
At “The Winged Wheel Studio,” I explore the intersection of the natural and the supernatural, blending landscapes with unexplained phenomena. My goal is to connect viewers to the sublime beauty of the Southwest while encouraging them to ponder the mysteries and possibilities that surround us. My work is not only about what is—it’s also about what could be.
-M. Illy
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