Article
"Mickey Baxter"

Mickey Baxter
by Michelle I. Zavala - Photographer David Beightol
Colorado Springs Style magazine, Summer 2000©

Strolling down the hallways of the Broadmoor West, passersby are drawn into a delightful, 18-foot-wide mural of a brightly colored garden. Six-foot high flowers, grasshoppers, ladybugs and a lone bumble bee dance throughout this wall painting that offers a lighthearted surprise in the midst of the hotel’s elegant and historic atmosphere.

Yet this is not the only surprise artist Mickey Baxter offers hotel visitors. A brief glance at the corridor ceiling reveals a host of cherubs peeking out of portholes, quietly watching over their earthly charges. Baxter’s work can be seen throughout the hotel, incorporating the themes of the original artwork with her own inspirational paintings. Since 1985, Baxter has gained a reputation for specializing in detailed creations painted directly on the walls of private residences and commercial buildings alike. Her work can be seen throughout Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Virginia and Toronto.

A native of Indiana and the oldest of eight children, Baxter is a self-taught artist whose talent was discovered early. The excitement of expressing herself creatively led her mother to comment: "There was never a piece of paper around the house without Mickey’s artwork on it." Her innate talent got her noticed in high school when she was asked to draw a portrait of the principal. He told Baxter a number of years later that he appreciated her work so much, the rendition hung on his office wall until his retirement.

New levels of Baxter’s talent were discovered when she attended a ceramics class. She sold the first piece she painted and realized she enjoyed this medium of self-expression. "The larger pieces of greenware intrigued me enough to do some research," she says. "Three months later, I opened my own studio and began teaching. The last four years of teaching, I taught only other instructors." When Baxter attended a week long tole painting workshop, she was fascinated with the hand-painted borders on the studio walls. A brief conversation with the instructor led her to give this new art form a try. She created a few samples, drove to Indianapolis and made cold calls on interior designers. After painting borders in the showroom of the first designer she visited, word-of-mouth comments jump-started her career as a muralist, and her phone began ringing with new clients. According to Baxter, her ceramic experience provided excellent training for painting murals. Both require an expert's touch and a high level of accuracy. "When painting ceramics, you cannot correct a mistake without it showing", she says. "It encouraged me to develop the discipline to do it right the first time. And knowing I couldn't make a mistake gave me the confidence to begin painting on walls."

Her 1987 move to Colorado Springs provided her first foray into working on a Macintosh computer, a tool she continues to use when developing oversized patterns for her original designs. Baxter made 20 presentations in Colorado Springs before landing her first job. After three years as a part-time illustrator at Fort Carson, she was determined to make her painting a full-time effort. "Two weeks after deciding to paint full time, I received a call from a local artist", Baxter says. "He had recommended me for a large scale project at the Broadmoor Hotel." After meeting with the Broadmoor's historian, Baxter was asked to submit her own ideas and samples for the architect/designer who, upon seeing her work, said: "I like your ideas better than mine." Baxter then prepared for her biggest art challenge: incorporating the hotel's original 1918 artwork into her own ideas. From the angels resting by the indoor pool, to archways in the golf clubhouse, to a 10-foot rose on the aerobics room floor, Baxter's work graces a number of spaces throughout the hotel. She has continued to work on new projects at the Broadmoor since 1994.

While her most public work in the Springs can be seen at the Broadmoor, the majority of Baxter's art is requested by residential clients. A number of her clients continue to call on her regularly, adding murals to their homes room by room. Baxter is inspired by her clients' ideas which can come to fruition in her dreams. Her residential clients can provide a suggestion, a magazine photograph or a piece of fabric to get her creative juices flowing. The biggest inspiration for her work? Flowers. "I am impressed with the delicate beauty of flowers", Baxter says. "I find it magical to reproduce them on a larger scale."

Her preferred way of working is to relax and not be too analytical, to let the creativity flow. The first time this happened, however, she was surprised and disappointed. "The mural at the end of the indoor pool (at the Broadmoor) was one of the first larger pieces I had done, and it flowed through me", she says. "After I finished, I was upset because I didn't feel I had really done it. Then I thought of the artists who painted centuries ago and realized they must have felt the same way the first time they experienced this."

Baxter says she is overwhelmed with gratitude to be able to do what she loves. Supported by many friends, family members and her two sons, she says she hopes her art will make someone's surroundings more beautiful. And what about that lone bumble bee that can be seen in nearly all of Baxter's work? She says the bumble bee is a symbol of her appreciation of her gift: a self-taught artist with no formal training. "A friend once told me that aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, yet it does", she says. "From that moment on, I began adding a bumble bee to all of my paintings." But perhaps a more accurate analogy might be an eagle. After all, Baxter's career is not simply flying, it's soaring.

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