Hasta La Ideas

“Did I ever tell you my Mad Max story?” asks Michael Ulman, a found objects sculptor from outside Boston. A gallery interested in representing Ulman told him to expect a call from a production crew; a few days later, George Miller, director of the Mad Max films, was on the line. When asked if he had ever heard of Mad Max, Ulman responded, ‘What? Mad Max is my favorite movie EVER.'”

Ulman has trouble getting the words out to describe how the mysterious conference call led to a three month excursion to Australia where he decorated the inside and outside of hundreds of cars with found objects based on the movie’s gang affiliation and the character. “They gave us a wad of cash and we’d go to junkyards to buy whatever we wanted…It was a dream job.”

But you would never guess all this standing in Michael Ulman’s suburban workshop housed in a building that has been home to a variety of factories over the last century. Ulman’s father is also a found objects sculptor and they share the workshop/gallery. “I grew up in a house where there was a studio in the basement,” says Ulman. “I’d be in my pajamas with those little feet and my dad would give me these giant work gloves. I’d hold parts for him to weld together. I’d be yelling, ‘It’s getting hot,’ and he’d respond, ‘Don’t let go!'”

The close mentorship by his father throughout his childhood and a household full of artists has made a lasting impression on Ulman. While he initially experimented with making sculptures of animals, as they were instantly recognizable forms, motorcycles, his current subject, were always a source of passion. “My mom says that when she was pregnant with me she went on a friend’s motorcycle,” says Ulman, and the rest is history.

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