The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. A listing in the OAR does not confer an endorsement, approval, or verification by the Ohio Arts Council.
For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
2025 Ohio Artist Registry Juried Exhibition
Michael Kocinski
Snacktime Arts, LLCColumbus Ohio 43214 United States Cell Phone: 419-283-0493
Bio
Michael Kocinski is an illustrator, poet, storyteller, and a Grants Program Evaluator based in Columbus, OH. He was born in Toledo, OH, in 1976, and grew up in with a pond in his backyard in what is known as the Oak Openings region. The wildlife and landforms in this rare, singular habitat has been the biggest influence on Michael’s attitude and practice of making art. Michael is a self-taught artist, with an illustrative style and fondness for Prismacolor pencils and acrylic paint markers as mediums. He’s been drawing his whole life, learning by experimenting, through trial and error, and borrowing tips from influences and heroes from comics, graphic design, and traditional illustration. Michael’s illustrations have adorned the covers of poetry collections, including To Have Hoped by Kerry Trautman, and decorated a limited-edition printing of Gary Soto’s long poem, ‘Gil Menendez and the Metaphysics of a Blimp’, hand set on a Vandercook Letterpress while he was a student at The University of Toledo. He shares his love of wildlife with his two sons, Henry, who is 15, and Walter, who is 11. The three of them have spent many happy hours stomping around woods and creeks and sitting at the dining room table drawing together. Michael’s first gallery show opened at the German Village Meeting House in Columbus, OH on December 8, 2025. He showed 40 of his Prismacolor wildlife portraits and shared the gallery with his sons, who also showed a few of their own wildlife portraits.
Artist Statement
I love to draw. I love its flexibility, its generosity, its portability, its willingness to happen on an expensive sheet of cold press watercolor paper or a coffee-stained diner napkin. I love to sit alone late at night and doodle while I watch movies. I love to sit at the dining room table with my sons, with our box of colored pencils spilled out like a go-fish pile, and draw monsters, superheroes, and wildlife from imaginary planets. I love to draw comic books with my friends after we’ve eaten a Wimpy Burger Platter at Schmucker’s, and I love to share my sketchbook with children who are unbridled with a borrowed pen and an empty page in front of them. I draw onesies for babies and greeting cards for holidays and birthdays. I draw to feel better and to make you feel better. I’m not trying to convey anything or say anything profound when I draw. I’m just trying to have fun. I’m playing. Drawing makes me happy. My drawings have made lots of people happy because my drawings are exuberant and colorful and always smiling.