Michael McGregor Charts Journeys

Your previous book, Room Service, and this forthcoming title, Memories of Hydra, are both in a sense to do with travel. I read in a previous interview that moving to Mexico from New York helped open up your relationship to colour. How does travel, and experiencing new places, influence your work? 

Being out of the studio and in the world, especially in a place that is not my ‘home' always opens my eyes. The sights, smells, scenery; everything feels illuminated when you shift your perspective. I try to keep my eyes open and surrender to the universe. And when I do, it usually tickles my interests and brings ideas for pictures to me organically. 

Currently you live in Los Angeles, you’ve lived in Mexico, and before that you were in New York. Why do you think you need to move around? And did your relationship with these cities evolve? What made you move to each?

For the last few years I have been splitting my time between LA and Greece. I joke that they’re the beginning and end of Western civilisation, but this is actually quite a real feeling too. Mexico City showed me that urban landscapes can be colourful and alive; unlike the grey drabness of New York. With LA and Athens, I feel the same as I did about Mexico. At night you can smell the blooming jasmine, and streets are lined with bougainvilleas, orange and lemon trees, there are cacti, the sea. At this point in my life, these little things are non-negotiables, so LA and Greece suit me well. 

Both books also have a diaristic quality. With the Hydra book this is more literal, but Room Service also does in the sense that it records fleeting moments. What is your relationship to diaries? 

I've never kept a diary but I always have a sketchbook with me when I’m traveling. I try to keep these books conceptually tight, essentially they are logs of details from a specific time and place. The Greece Notebook was a full reproduction of my notebook from traveling around Greece in 2022. Memories of Hydra is the same: created in a four day stint in May 2023, days before the release of The Greece Notebook, I did almost all the drawings at the Hydronetta beach bar.

How did these become books? Did you start out wanting to create a book in each case, or did the format fall into place as you started producing the work?

They were always planned to be books, produced to replicate the sketchbooks. Same sizes, same dimensions, warts and all. There are a few more books in the pipeline too. One dedicated to aperitivo hour in Sicily, as well as a Paris book, a London book, a book dedicated to one of my favourite bars.

All of your work seems to draw very directly from your life and experiences. Do you have any separation between life and work? How do you draw the line between the two things?

My work is my life and my life is my work. There is no separation. I am both always on vacation and always working. 

You have said Warhol is an influence, and similarly to his work, your paintings and drawings often feature mass market products. What is your relationship to his work, and who else influences you? 

Growing up outside New York in the 1980s, it was pretty impossible not to interface with Warhol. There were a lot of field trips to The Museum of Modern Art in school. Lately, I've been deeply into the French painter and printmaker Pierre Bonnard, especially his use of light and colour. The marks. They've really been illuminating my life over the last year or two.

Your work spans painting and drawing, and you exhibit in fine art contexts as well as working with commercial clients. How do you navigate these different mediums and contexts? 

There is no separation. It's all making pictures to me, they just have different outlets and applications. Sometimes a picture becomes a book, sometimes it’s a hat, sometimes it’s an oil painting on canvas. I like all applications for pictures. If it’s fun and comes naturally, why not?

What’s on the horizon for you?

A few new publications, a capsule collection I'm very excited about, and a few exhibitions on the horizon too. Also, lots of swimming, I hope.