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EDUCATION

2006/09 Master of Fine Arts Candidate in Printmaking program at Northern Illinois University,
Dekalb, Illinois, Fall 2006 to Present. Scheduled to graduate in 2009

2004 Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the Pacific Northwest College of
Art, Portland Oregon, Graduated May 2004

TEACHING

2008 Graduate Teaching Assistant at Northern Illinois University, instructor of record,
Foundations Drawing 100

2007 Graduate Teaching Assistant at Northern Illinois University, instructor of record,
Foundations Drawing 100

2006 Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland Oregon, Summer Screen-printing Workshop
for Teens Ages 14-18

RELATED PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2008 Gallery Assistant, Jack Olson Gallery, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb Illinois.
*Duties include installation and de-installation of exhibitions, assisting professional
artists exhibiting at Jack Olson Gallery, and managing graduate exhibition gallery
“Gallery 214” located at Northern Illinois University School of Art.

2007 Graduate Student Assistant, assistant to Adrian Tio, Director of School of Art, Northern
Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois
Gallery Assistant, Jack Olson Gallery, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois

2006 Graduate Student Assistant, assistant to Adrian Tio, Director of School of Art, Northern
Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois
Gallery Assistant, Jack Olson Gallery, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois

2005 Hui No’eau Visual Arts Center, Makawao, Hawaii. Apprenticeship in Print Department
for faculty member, Paul Mullowney
Snowboard Design for Palmer Snowboard, hired through Nemo Design in
Portland, Oregon
Screen-Printer and artist assistant for professional artist Chris Johanson

GRANTS, SCHOLARSHIPS, AWARDS

2007/2008 John X Koznarek Memorial Endowed Scholarship, Northern Illinois University,
DeKalb, Illinois

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The environments and people that have surrounded my life influence and inform
the art I create. My work is about constructing autobiographical images that explore the
ghosts of my past. I am interested in how both personal and cultural histories have
profoundly affected my visual language.

I compose memorials to the intangible memories of my past. By visually
recording impressions of specific times, places, and events in my life I am preserving
memories that seem to fade with each passing year.

My work calls upon the repetitive nature of photography and printmaking to
create a network of reoccurring images that I can meditate on to help search for a truth. I
use a lexicon of images that relate to specific events in my history. Repeated images of
bridges, birds, trains, war, urban landscapes, and old family portraits find their way into
my work lending themselves to an unfolding narrative. All these images carry a personal
biography, but also carry the weight of their own metaphors helping to furnish an evergrowing
personal narrative.

Michael Edward McGovern 2007

Email: mike1@partsandlaborcollective.com
Phone: (503) 544-7217