- Your favorite pair of shoes? Around my house and studio it's flip-flops, when I go out it's sneakers, Vans and high top Chuck Taylors. I have a pair of black ones for formal occasions.
- 3 favorite cds/albums? I actually listen to the radio more then CD's. I'm a Concert 90 junkie listening to classical during the day and Bob Seymour's Jazz at night. But to answer your question, my favorite albums are Dead Can Dance "Toward the Within", Miles Davis "Kinda Blue" and The Spam Allstars.
- What would your one message to the world be? Think about it before you act. It's better to not act for some time then to act irrationally.
- What if anything do you think the Tampa Bay area needs to do/have to be more supportive of working artists? I think it's a two way street, the Bay area and the artist. The area needs to be more receptive to local artists and the immense amount of talent on both sides of the bay. But artists need to understand that their art is a business, so run it like a business, like a business person would. Open up to the more mainstream public. One might be surprised at their interest. Oh ya, and drop the ego.
- What is the one thing you want people to know about you? I think all this is enough, probably too much…lol
all artwork (c) Michael Conway
local
art: Michael Conway/Tectao Studios 
Q. How did someone who started out as an Anthropology major become a photographer, artist and now web designer?
A. As the great philosopher Garcia said, what a long
strange trip it's been. I was around cameras at an early age. My dad was
a talented amateur photographer, so I learned about f-stops and shutter
speeds early on. My interest in anthropology and art came early on through
scouting. I developed an interest in researching American Indian arts,
crafts and culture. I would go to museums like the Haye Museum of American
Indian Art and Denver Museum of American Indian Art, shoot slides of artifacts,
return home and duplicate the pieces from the slides, using traditional
materials like buckskin, Chech seed beads and porcupine quills. I was
also shooting black and white and developing my eye for theme and composition.
Through a succession of different colleges, Florida Presbyterian (now
Eckerd), Northern Arizona University and USF, I changed majors from anthro,
to art, back to anthro and finally a degree in literature. After college
I moved to Sarasota and where I had a studio across from the beach on
Siesta Key. I did b&w photo art and shows, shot touring bands for the
local radio station, taught beginning photography at New College and worked
for three years at the Ringling Museum. The museum gig solidified my appreciation
in art and the fine art protocol of print making and archival display.
What can I say, even in those days it was a starving artist situation
unless you lived in one of the large metropolitan area. So by the mid
80's, I cut my hair, bought a suite and went into business. Did pretty
well, but always longed to get back into the creative side. During this
time I still shot a lot of film, mostly family stuff, you know, my daughter
at Easter or at the park.
The mid 90's brought an incredible opportunity for the creative person
with the introduction of the world wide web. I jumped in about 1995 and
was building web sites by 1997. Through the late 90's I was like a sponge,
learning HTML, Flash, Photoshop, ColdFusion, PHP, everything needed to
go out on my own, and in 2000, did just that with TecTao Designs.
I think of web design, the creative as well as the programming, as a similar
process used by someone like Norman Rockwell who painted but had to meet
deadlines every week for his Saturday Evening Post covers. Client work
is deadline driven, so I always have to come up with new ideas. Client
driven web design constantly exercises my creative side and makes me a
living while pursuing photography and digital art as an art form without
the pressure of selling.
Q. What medium/s are you working in now?
A. On the design side, a lot of Flash, PHP programming and jumping
into RSS feeds. From the art side, continually editing photos I've taken
and experimenting with new ideas. Besides the usual one frame one picture
approach, I've been working on a style that David Hockney experimented
with about 20 years ago using multiple frames in a photo collage technique.
Q. What specifically have you been working on lately?
A. Unfortunately, 60% of my creative work time is spent on client
stuff. The other 40% is editing photography and trying different techniques
in photo imagery. I have tens of thousands of frames both digital and
film and not enough time to work on them. I'm also gearing up to do a
series of digitally altered portraits of friends, family, artist and people
who interest me, sort of in the Richard Avedon vain, same background same
lighting, only in black and white and with some color.
Q. Does TecTao have a/any specific meaning/s?
A. I came up with the moniker TecTao back in the mid 90's when
the internet was just getting off the ground. I wanted a name for my art
site as well as a name for the old Internet Relay Channels (IRC) where
we traded MP3's. It came to me in a flash one night combining Tec for
technology Tao for simplicity. It's my own personal oxymoron.
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