About MIKE

My art experience in design, illustration and fine art spans 50 years. As Professor Emeritus and former chair of the Department of Visual Arts and Music at Columbia College I taught a variety of art classes, including graphic design; illustration, typography, advanced drawing, and printmaking. I received my MFA in drawing from the University of Missouri, and my BFA from Georgetown College.

My signature works evolve from numerous thumbnail sketches, then I often begin a drawing with expressive gestures using the ink-soaked plume of a feather. From those initial strokes, I weave an array of patterns into detailed, whimsical abstractions. Intricate, expressive, and sometimes humorous, my work is complex and full of texture, evolving over dozens of hours spent dipping my pen into an my cut glass 1909 inkwell.

The following is from an article by Aarik Danielsen, Columbia Tribune, May 14, 2023:

To receive all his drawings stretch out to offer, viewers should approach them with a few principles in mind:
•Take the craft, but not yourself, serious.
• Look between — and around, and directly at — the lines.
• Be willing to find the beautiful in the bizarre, the bizarre in the beautiful and yourself somewhere among it all.

That is, approach the work as Sleadd does.

Getting beneath the skin of a person or story, he brings the stuff of life to the surface. Some of Sleadd's details are actual, some fantastical; but like a poet who uses license to inch closer to real, messy humanity, he shows us who we are through invention.

Many of my drawings range in size from 15"x22" to 26"x40". Smaller (and larger) drawings, prints, mixed media art and signed archival reproductions are available. Contact me for a personal showing and/or purchase. Currently my artwork can also be purchased at Melissa Williams Fine Art on 9th Street above Bluestem in Columbia.

All images on this web site are the property of Mike Sleadd and cannot be used without my written permission.

It’s good to be seen.

I currently have eight large ink drawings at the outstanding Sycamore restaurant on Broadway in Columbia, Missouri. Drop by for a great meal, happy hour snack and glass of wine, or one of Melanie’s magnificent cocktails. The art is for sale. If you see something you like drop me an email

The Kasper Collection of Contemporary Biblical Art (website)

The “Tower of Babel” (below) was one of my five ink drawings in a two-gallery exhibition of the Kasper Collection, which showed at Columbia College and Orr Street Studios Gallery January 6-30 this year.

The show includes works by several Central Missouri artists and one from Iowa: Matt Ballou, Jane Mudd, Nora Othic, Askia Bilal, Shannon Soldner, Colleen Smith, Jim Kasper, Cheryl Hardy, and Alonzon Williams.

We are seeking host venues: museums, public galleries, colleges and churches who are interested in displaying the full collection (or a selection of it) for approximately one month. There is no cost to the host. We handle delivery and pickup, also at no cost. If interested please contact Jim Kasper at https://contemporarybiblicalart.com/exhibits/, or contact me.