About

I first started using computers in 1975, when I was 14. I found my feet quickly with what was then an entirely new thing.

A friend's cousin was a science student in UCD and he let me use his sign-in credentials for the university's IBM 360, connected to a Tektronix graphics terminal. It was a trailblazing machine for its time. I spent hours on it, then days, then months.

Eventually the Computer Lab sent an email asking what exactly I was doing with tens of thousands of pounds' worth of CPU time. Yes, email — it was invented in 1971. This was 1975.

I was making digital art, and to my mind that was a perfectly good use of the CPU time, which I had never thought of as money. That was not, of course, what I wrote back.

The first thing I used computers for was to make digital art, and I expect it will be the last thing I use them for.

Two years ago I decided that if I was going to be serious about digital art I should learn how to paint, and I started going to evening classes at East Coast Art in Bray. The proprietor, Eoin Llewellyn, is a fantastic teacher — I think he can teach just about anyone to paint and draw. The oils and charcoals here are recent and I am still learning, but I would rather show the work as it develops than wait until I think it is good enough.

There are a great many McLaughlins where my family is from, so locally we were always the Curate. I sign the oils and charcoals Michael.

Exhibitions, prints and commissions: get in touch by email.