Mike’s Blog

Mike’s beginning in California:

Mike’s beginning in California: Christmas morning 7:04 am 1966 I was born in Santa Monica hospital the fourth of 5 boys. They brought me home to Topanga Canyon in a Christmas Stocking. This year I turned 56. My friends have accused me of dying my hair because it isn’t grey, I figure it’s more related to a low-stress lifestyle. We grew up Catholic and attended “Our Lady of Malibu”. I remember constantly doodling on my papers, and in first grade, a classmate told me “One day you’ll be a famous cartoonist”. I remember thinking “How cool would that be.” In the fall of 1979 right before Christmas Break there was torrential flooding, the main road into the canyon was washed away. We were elated, no school for who knows how long. A couple of friends and I decided to go exploring and check out all the flood damage. We had our rubber boots and Crossman Bbgun. Eventually, we came to a drainage pipe that went under the main road. It was about six feet high and had a steady flow of water about 4” deep. I went in and jumped side to side and made my way to the bottom exit. The water was blasting into a shallow pool with the main creek thundering brown angry water carrying boulders and pieces of Creekside houses. 100ft down. I tried to wave my friends in so they could see it too. They shook their heads “No”. I started to run back up the pipe jumping from side to side. I made it almost to the top and I guess I was getting tired, and my boot caught the fast-moving water and I fell down. I instantly knew this was going to be bad, I flipped over and dug my nails into the pipe trying to slow down. The pipe had a layer of slippery green moss that let me know, there was no stopping. I curled up and braced for impact. I flew out of the pipe and when I hit the bottom of the icy cold pond, I broke both ankles and gingerly swam to the shore, my boots were filled with water which made them feel like concrete weights. I wouldn’t be walking home. The first person who came down was a reporter from the LA Times. He gave me his jacket and his cowboy hat. It was starting to rain again, I was shivering uncontrollably. A helicopter came in and was hovering above us, they eventually flew away when they decided I wasn’t hurt enough or that it was too dangerous. The fire dept showed up and dragged me up the cliff in a metal gurney. They loaded me onto a large county work truck with a group of workers. One of them gave me his blue beanie and we headed for the top of Topanga. The road was washed out there as well, they hiked me in the gurney across the creek to a waiting Ambulance and ended up at Malibu emergency hospital. I came home in a wheelchair, soon after my parents broke the news they were splitting up and my younger brother Steve and I were going to stay with my Uncle in Texas. I feel like I was shot out of that pipe and landed in Texas. I’ve been here ever since.

Being an entrepreneur and creating a business is like making a fire. How did you know how to stack the logs, what to use for kindling, how to fan the flames, and how to maintain that fire for three decades? 

Firebuilding and Maintenance:

Being a self-employed Artist has a lot of similarities to an outdoor survivalist.  You must be self-reliant and think ahead and work through the different seasons, with their ups and downs. Constantly scouring the horizon for opportunities. 

The art of fire is a simple concept.  The spark starts the flame.  You dream up your product and then you sell your product, get the money and repeat the process.  Eventually making and selling more and more, building a bigger and bigger fire.  For my spark it was an assignment in Ceramics class at Southwest Texas State University.  Michele Conroy was my teacher, she wanted a “modular” piece.  Something that included several similar pieces.  I decided on making a school of fish.  My friend Travis Barber was an avid fisherman and tropical fish enthusiast.  His house was filled with fish tanks with exotic fish from all over the world.  One tank was dedicated to freshwater fish from the San Marcos River, it runs through the Campus.  He had several perch, a bass, and catfish.  I bought a perch from him; it was still wiggling in the ziplock bag when I brought it into class to make a mold.  I paid $10.00 for the fish which I thought was “highway robbery”!  Over 30 years that one fish turned into 4 Million dollars of Retail Sales!!   As far as stacking the logs we did several things to keep it going.  In the beginning, it was Chuys in Austin, Tx was the main source of sales.  Then came Deck the Walls Barton Creek Mall in Austin, Tx. This store helped us get into more Deck The Walls across the United States after a New Orleans DTW Trade Show.  Then we went from 20 Retail locations to 150 Locations.  At this point the fire began to burn out of control we had more sales than we had product.  We hired more people and we were trying to produce 200 fish a day.  We were shipping out daily!!  The 5,000 sq.ft warehouse started looking small.  We were building molds, painting fish, and packing fish.  Over those 10 years the schedule was non-stop doing trade shows, Art Shows, and Personal appearances at different DTW across the Country doing Fish Signings!! And meanwhile trying to manage 25 employees.  Then after 911 the Retail locations started dropping off.  Then we decided the Website would be our main focus.  We maintained our sales for the next 10 years via the Internet and Mike started part-time with the Power Plant work.  However, we were able to maintain the fire and keep it going even though Mike had stepped back from the Art full-time.  At this point, he started working on larger-scale Art and really enjoyed just making Art instead of managing other people helping to make his art.  He still makes the smaller fish and this is our daily sales, but then he creates the larger Art too. The fire is much more manageable and enjoyable on a smaller scale. 

So Festive!

We have a limited supply of mini Santa Hats in the store! Free hat with every $50 fish purchase, while supplies last. If you spend $20 on hats you get free shipping Coupon code santahat

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