The vibrant world of art can sometimes be a bit murky for Michael Reed, a Columbus artist colorblind to reds and greens.

Although this has caused him to have some trepidation, he still incorporates red and green onto his palette and turns out plenty of vivid pieces. Reed admits he’s always been afraid of colors, but by taking up painting about two years ago, he’s learned to respect color schemes, rather than fear them.

“I’ll never be exactly sure about color, but it’s not going to stop me from painting,” he says. “As an artist, you want to expand, and you do that by taking on what you fear.”

Reed has taken on a lot more than just reds and greens. The self-admitted “scatterbrain” works simultaneously on various projects while juggling a computer technician day job and master’s classes in city planning. For someone who’s only been in the Columbus art scene a few years, he’s brought many ideas to fruition.

Reed facilitates www.columbusart.org; he’s a founding member of The Couchfire Collective, which hosts Agora shows that draw thousands of patrons to Junctionview Studios, in Grandview; and, perhaps most notably, he was the first to coin Columbus as “The Indie Art Capital of the World.”

With this velocity of ambition, it’s hard to tell Reed hasn’t been at the easel very long. He does consider computer programming to be a highly creative gig. But, as it did for many, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 are what eventually made him rethink his path.

“I know it sounds cliché, but after something like that happens, you think about your mortality and what you’re doing. I was in the dot-com industry – the money and jobs were good, but I started thinking about things beyond making money,” Reed says.

He began by painting expressive narratives. His work is influenced by his interest in philosophy, and a lot of his abstract pieces are very dark. “I’ve been accused of having a serious palette,” Reed says. “What you’re experiencing directly influences what you’re working on, and I’ve been looking at a lot of old imagery that was designed to instill fear. I have made a lot of arbitrary decisions with my narratives and they can be dark and chaotic.”

His favorite piece, titled Small Craft Advisory, illustrates (with India ink over oil paint) his transition between gloomy-abstract and livelier narrative. Whatever Reed creates, it’s almost certainly done on a large scale. “I think you can be more aggressive with bigger paintings, and the bigger they are, the more expressive you can be,” he says.

The size of his work forced him to look for a space outside his home, which is how he found Junctionview Studios, an old, 25,000-square-foot warehouse that boasts 42 studios and about 50 artists. When he began working at the studio it was practically empty. He paired up with another artist to spread the word about the space and from that eventually came The Couchfire Collective (www.couchfire.org).

“I met someone who told me about a citywide event they have in Philadelphia, and I thought that would work so well here,” Reed says. “We have all these great but separate arts groups in Columbus, and they’re all relevant and good for the city, but why not collaborate into a unifying identity?”

With that, the Agora shows were born. Couchfire has hosted three thus far, with lofty goals for the future. More recently, “The Indie Art Capital of the World” slogan was conceived and has since been embraced with enthusiasm, including by the Columbus City Council, which adopted a resolution in December officially declaring Columbus as such.

“I was doing research on Austin’s (Texas) ‘South by Southwest Festival’ and how it happened and, basically, a bunch of people there wanted an identity and talked about how to get it. Now it’s huge. It seemed so ridiculously easy,” Reed says. “All we want is for the rest of the world to see Columbus as a formidable place to show and create art.”

So far, it’s on the right track. Literature has been spread throughout the city, including in Experience Columbus’ welcoming kits; T-shirts have been made; and a Web site (www.indieartcapital.com) has been created.

Although he’s excited about the possibilities surrounding the tag, he says coming up with the idea is only “1 percent” of the process, and credits many others with having relentless motivation. “This isn’t about ‘Mike Reed’s idea.’ There were three other artists – Kyle Ezell, Walker Evans and Daniel Fox – who picked it up immediately and took it as their own. Since then hundreds of people have adopted it,” Reed says. “Having the idea is one thing, but delivering on the promise of an idea is what counts, and there are tons of people doing just that.”

Reed’s goals are to continue the Agora shows, influence more Junctionview-like spaces and collaborations, and create an “Indie Arts Capital of the World” conference that could generate millions of dollars for Columbus. He also wants to keep creating and developing his own art.

“I still have a lot to learn and that’s the fun part for me,” Reed says. “This is a very fertile place to be creative, and I believe we are on the cusp of an artistic explosion.”

Check out some of Reed’s work at www.dripsplatter.com or www.couchfire.org.  

Alicia Kelso is editor of CityScene.


*** On Dec. 10, 2007, the Columbus City Council adopted a resolution to officially declare the city as “The Indie Art Capital of the World.”