Mingering Mike is not only a D.C. native, but he is also a self-taught artist; much of his work relates to the impoverished conditions that he experienced while living in D.C.
For the very first time, the work of the self-taught Washington, D.C. artist known by his alter ego Mingering Mike is on public display. This exhibit is the manifestation of a youthful fantasy coming true, an underdog story that is finally being told.
Mingering Mike grew up in poverty during the ’60s and ’70s, and long dreamed of being a soul singer and songwriter, regarding music as both a passion and an escape from the drug-infested neighborhood he lived in. In search of his dream, he began to draw record label covers on cardboard, fashioning discs with hand-drawn grooves to accompany his records. Sometimes he would sing his songs into a record player in his parent’s bathroom, producing his records for “Fake Label, Inc.” and “Capitol Records,” making the dream no longer truly imaginary.
Mike continued to create art. He manufactured LP albums made from painted cardboard, original album art, song lyrics, liner notes, self-recorded 45 rpm singles and other auxiliary material. His body of work tells the story of a would-be dream and the struggle of a timid outsider making sense of the discriminatory world around him through his drawings.
Just after Mike “released” his double album “The Mingering Mike Show: Live from the Howard Theatre,” he received a letter in the mail from the United States Army officially drafting him to fight in Vietnam. Terrified, Mike disappeared, going into hiding. Underground, he continued to make LPs, moved by fear and resignation.
When Carter pardoned draft dodgers in 1977, Mingering Mike was able to get a job as a security guard, so he locked away his art collection in a storage facility, where it remained for 11 years, until he missed a payment. The owner then auctioned all his work off to a local Washington flea market, where “record digger” and criminal investigator Dori Hadar happened to be in 2003.
Hadar found the albums and then made it his mission to find Mingering Mike. Both men agreed to let the Smithsonian American Art Museum restore and preserve his full body of work. The exhibit, “Mingering Mike’s Supersonic Greatest Hits,” opened today and will be on display until Aug. 2. There will be several programs including a curator-led gallery talk and a “Supersonic Rewind” dance party open to the public.
Leslie Umberger, the curator of folk and self-taught art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, says the collection operates on many levels; not only does it speak to the African-American culture in Washington during the civil rights movement, it also serves as evidence of a larger achievement.
“For Mike, it’s this dream and the embodiment of democratic ideals that you, too, could come from nothing and be regarded as a huge success. He never thought that was something that was going to happen, yet it really has happened,” Umberger said.
Mingering Mike’s diverse and vivid record cover illustrations trace the dual identity of the Capitol, illuminating the idea of a divided Washington. His fake superstardom led him to sing at trendy D.C. music venues like the Howard Theatre. Countless other records make reference to his favorite music spots, radio stations and stores in the District, including Waxie Maxie’s, a local record store chain.
“It’s a large body of work with so many layers. The visual art is one thing but then you peel back and you realize he has written all of this stuff on every corner of the album, inside and out. It just takes you on a journey that is really enjoyable and enriching and it is kind of like a diary — you end up feeling like you know him really well, even though he still is a total mystery,” Umberger said.
Mike’s work is undeniably exquisite, yet people have a tendency to approach self-taught art with skepticism, thinking that it does not hold the same significance as professional grade art.
“I think that the skepticism has a lot to do with people presuming skill and training is everything in art and that if it looks unprofessional or unpolished that it must not be very good or very important. I think what a body of work like this can do is help people bypass that and have an emotional encounter with the work where it takes you back to a time and a place and a person putting down his creative dream and having it — regardless what level it’s executed at,” Umberger said.
Mingering Mike’s work is historic and inspiring. Although the process of restoring the work proved to be challenging, the record labels that were once musty and damp from sitting in a storage unit are now refined and encased in glass for the world to see, preserved by the country’s most skilled conservationists.
Tracks like “The Ghetto Prince” and “Darlene, Come on Back to our Side of the Track” illustrate the concerns Mingering Mike had about the “dark side” that he saw far too many friends and neighbors turn to, resorting to drug dealing and prostitution as a way out of poverty. The “ghetto prince” drawn on the inside of the record appears to be handing drugs to members of the neighborhood while on horseback. Tracks like “The First One’s Free” and “Confusion” reference the temptation of a dangerous lifestyle.
A handful of his other records echo the same message: Even if you might be struggling, keep your head up and stay on the right path. His record “Grooving with Mike” reads “Don’t be no fool / Get your thing together and go back to school.” Mingering Mike sought to lift himself and others up through his drawing and lyrics, though he never actually sought out fame or an audience.
Despite the fact that his work is now being displayed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Mingering Mike refuses to reveal his true name and identity, fearful and insecure about how this disclosure would affect the way the people in his daily life treat him. Even though many of his relatives and friends inspired the characters that appear throughout his work, he has yet to tell them about the Smithsonian’s acquisition.
Mingering Mike’s anonymity is no hindrance to his popularity. Since the resurrection of his work, Mike has gained a cult following and garnered praise from educated artists and music fans alike. “Mingering Mike’s Supersonic Greatest Hits” is not just an exhibit — it is a touching story that everyone should witness.
