Michael Scherotter

For over three decades, I have chronicled the world through the lens of my travel journals – first as a tool to study architecture then as a way of recording and sharing my journey along the parallel paths of creativity and a career in technology.

My style is loose and able to capture unexpected, which often happens when using ink and watercolors plein-air. I have found that my most creative expressions come when I break the rules, mix mediums and play with colors that I feel rather than see. I use the tool of urban sketching as a starting point for creative exploration. In my journals I have used drawing, watercolor painting, collage, papercraft, photography, circuitry, stitching, and popup features to record my travels in creative ways. I have inspired many people by sharing my journals and that has encouraged me to start teaching various techniques that I have learned and applied over the years.

As most of my work has been in the pages of journals, I developed my artistic technique as a personal dialog, trying to capture what I see with drawing, painting, collage, photography and papercraft. I found purpose in the visual journal as a medium to share with others as well as a mnemonic to recall my journey.

In 2021, I took a sabbatical from my work as a technical program manager at Microsoft to build Galeryst.com aiming to recreate the art gallery experience online – allowing me to exhibit my own work and give artists everywhere an engaging, interactive way to exhibit theirs. I have spent a career in software at the intersection of creativity and technology, crafting and using tools for creative processes – where my favorite creative tool has always been the journal.