Contact Me

• E-mail:  mplagge247@merleplaggeart.com
• Phone/Text: 269-330-9808

A brief Biography:
I was born in Chicago, and was educated up through junior college in the  South Suburban Chicagoland area. When I was in grade school, I brought home some art work that I had done in school, and my Dad saw it and said, “Don’t ever bring anything home like that.” However that didn’t stop me and in my freshman year at Jr. College, I enjoyed drawing what I saw in the microscope, and I was helped quite a bit by a venerable Zoology Professor who insisted I drew what I saw.

 I finished college at the University of Illinois and then went to Medical School at St. Louis University. Internship and Residency was at Pontiac General Hospital (MI) and University of Michigan.  Following residency I was in Practice in Drayton Plains, MI  I became board certified,  and was  Director of Surgical Education at Pontiac General Hospital for several years. I am an American Board of Surgery certified physician, now retired from a busy surgical practice in Northern Michigan, where I was greatly influenced forever, by the weather and landscape of Northern Michigan and surrounding lakes area. 

While in practice my artistic expression was through photography, both color and black and white.  Shortly after retiring I went to a beginning watercolor class on a challenge, and the rest is history.

My art education since retiring has been largely self taught, with strong relation to photography and through workshops with Jack Proctor, Helga Flower, Mary Ann Beckwith, Cheng-Khee Chee, Rod Lawrence and others. Many of my paintings are now produced with improvisation and experimentation, using acrylic, watercolor and other paints and media. This very process makes each painting unique and non-reproducible, except by copying and archival printing.

I am a signature member of the International Society of Experimental Artists, and currently Director of Membership Services for ISEA. I am also a member of the Southwest Michigan Watercolor Society. I’ve had juried show acceptances in ISEA, the Greater Michigan Art Exhibition and the Three Rivers Regional art shows.  I am also an associate member of the National Watercolor Society.

I now teach workshops in basic experimental techniques, and design. If interested in a workshop, please call or leave a comment.