Michael R. Gorman calls himself a “Renaissance Man” with a sheepish grin, and then qualifies the title with, “I think a ‘Renaissance Man’ is a guy who is good at a lot of stuff and just can’t focus or decide what to concentrate on.” He has also said, “Given the stark difference between the things I do well and the many things I cannot to, a friend once called me an ‘Idiot Savant.’”
Although Michael has dabbled in art all of his life, his first artistic tool was the pen. He is the national Lambda Literary Award winning author of the innovative biography of Jose Sarria called The Empress Is A Man. His writing covers a range of genres: journalism, poetry, lyrics, playwriting, short stories, and non-fiction scholarship, with poetry being his first love. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts degree from California State University, Sacramento, and has since his formal studies become a student of Celtic History, Philosophy, and Spirituality. He currently is working on a biography of Irish poet and Druid, Ella Young, and a book of Celtic history and philosophy. He currently lives in Midtown Sacramento.
Michael is currently working toward a second Master’s Degree, this one in art. Of his segue into the visual arts, he says, “I always thought I’d be good at it if I took the time to pursue it. I’ve always been a visual writer. One critic called me, ‘the poet who never met an adjective he didn’t like.’ I took it as a compliment.”
Michael grew up with a deep love of classic sculpture, which is perhaps why his current interest in the visual arts is focused on three dimensions. Because of his continuing passion for his Irish Celtic ancestors and the pre-Christian Celtic world, he includes Celtic Mythology in much of his work, and expresses much of it in the drawing, sculpting, and painting of the human figure in all of its natural beauty. Michael is also a Seanache (shawn-ah-hee), which is Gaelic for “storyteller.” Those who know his work often start by looking for the story. Despite his love for artistic elements that have come to be seen as anachronistic, he does not seek to return to past ages when story, symbol, and figure informed the art of the day, but rather, he seeks to weave together more modern and abstract images and forms with those more classic images and forms that first drew him as a child to the world of art. His Celtic based philosophy eschews the modern western world’s tendency to seek either this or that. Instead he seeks to embrace both this and that. It is in the weaving together that he finds meaning.
Of his refusal to be defined only by the styles and methods of the current majority, by the current conventions, he says, “I am tired of being forced to choose sides. It’s always either/or. Why can’t it be both/and? I’m also tired of people not knowing anything about the amazing lore of my Celtic ancestors, and I’m tired of Puritanism. Those attitudes are reflected in my work.”
Michael R. Gorman’s writing has often been a source of controversy for his willingness to challenge conventional thinking. It remains to be seen if his growing portfolio of art will follow suit. Of the balancing act between his writing and his art, Michael says playfully, “Now I can illustrate my own books!”

I also have developed a training program for fine art models. It deals with both the artistic and practical challenges of doing long poses for artists. It teaches the model how to expand his/her repertoire of poses.

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