From the catalog essay by Susan Hillhouse Leask, curator of Art and Collections, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.

Michael Cutlip: A Painting Must be Free to Wander

"Michael Cutlip makes artwork that adds a new and innovative voice to the art world chorus. Vestigial notes of Cubism, Surrealism, Pop Art, Street Art, and Neo-Expressionism play underneath the purity of his joyful and media-rich sound.

Cutlip is a Cubist at heart with a simultaneous vision that invites investigation and inspires experimentation. He erases the lines between painting, drawing and collage, and he does not look up to see if anyone notices that he has no idea where he will place his next mark or with what he will make that mark. As he works, he decides which materials are available and appropriate. He does not feel obligated to stick to a singular subject within the same artwork. Instead, layer upon layer, he recounts multiple narratives through the ancient form of stacked perspective."