Durkish Delights paints the Lakes Region

ALTON — As a child, Mike Durkee watched his father draw superheroes and was impressed with his dad’s skill. “My father was my first creative influence,” Durkee remembers. “I thought it was incredible to be able to draw so well.”

The influence stuck and today Durkee is a graphic artist and muralist and owner of Durkish Delights Design Company, with a studio and home in Alton.

Perhaps it was the influence of a creative father that inspired Durkee to become an artist. “I grew up in a small town in Massachusetts,” he said. “I taught myself how to draw more advanced stuff than we did in art class at school. I kept making art throughout high school.”

Traveling to improve his art has stood Durkee well, starting with attending Chester College of New England, a “hippie art school in the middle of nowhere with small class sizes and incredible professors,” he recalled.

After college and time spent at an art studio in Manchester, Durkee and his girlfriend (now his wife) moved to South Korea.

Every experience impacts an artist and the move to another country did just that for Durkee. He said, “Living abroad influenced my artwork by opening my mind to different cultures and perspectives. It made me grow as a person. A lot of the thought that goes into my art would not exist if it weren’t for me opening my mind to the rest of the world.”

While in South Korea, Durkee started a YouTube channel that got good traction. He added, when talking about travel, “We lived on a farm in Hawaii for a while too. Eventually, we moved back to start a family. My wife is originally from Rochester and really loved the Lakes Region, so we moved to Alton, and we love it. Half my home is an art studio. It’s my favorite place. It’s like a fun house full of oddities I’ve collected over the years. Lots of color. Lots of supplies. Good music.”

Durkee's clients find him on social media, and each project is custom, such as a mural he created on Canal Street in Laconia for Piedmont Print and Frame. He also has done a mural in the Alton Central School, a double mural at the Rochester Museum of Fine Art, and blue and green mountain-themed barriers in Rochester. Other murals can be found in area homes or businesses.

While designing and painting murals can be challenging, Durkee reflected, “I love it because every project has a different plot twist. At the end of the day everyone wants the same thing: A beautiful piece of art that makes them or their clients feel something.”

He continued, “An example would be a restaurant. Restaurant owners want murals because they (the murals) create an ambience in the space. That makes people want to stay and eat and drink. It also serves as advertising because so many people take selfies with murals and post them to Instagram. It’s a tattoo for your business, because people voluntarily share with the world.”

Durkee began painting murals when a friend recommended him to a restaurant owner. “We came up with a concept that I turned into a design and then I painted it on the wall. People would come in just to take a photo with the mural and then stayed to get food. Watching that happen made me realize the value in what I had done. Word got around and I started booking projects regularly.”

The process of painting a mural puts the artist in front of anyone passing by; there is no anonymity. The exposure might be unsettling for some, but Durkee enjoys it. “Mostly people just come by and give compliments. I kind of feel like a rock star when I’m painting in front of people. Occasionally I get hecklers. It’s usually people telling you how it should be painted differently,” he added.

Having worked with many clients, Durkee says his favorite mural is a staircase he painted in a beautiful home. “It was a big, weaving tapestry of different rock/punk rock legends. It felt very magical to paint. Most of the musicians I was painting directly influenced the way I dress, walk and talk.”

Durkee’s clients are all different and each is looking for something meaningful. They rely on him to turn their sometimes-vague idea into a beautiful mural. “That is the more challenging part,” he said. “The painting, in the end, is a very physically taxing victory lap.” The process of creating a mural is, simply put, concept, design, and application, and Durkee adds, “about a million steps in between!”

Durkee also does digital personal projects, and from time to time, branding and/or logo design. Currently, he has a big project in Maine he is, “Pretty jazzed about. No spoilers though. Follow me on Instagram and TikTok to see - @durkishdelights.”

The artist is always busy and likes being his own boss. “This is the best time in history to be an artist. Social media lets us put ourselves out there and connect with so many people.”

Living in a scenic area such as the Lakes Region is inspirational to any artist, and Durkee is no exception. He pointed out, “I had this misconception that artists only lived in places like New York or Los Angeles before I moved here. It’s not really the case. There are great artists everywhere.”

Piedmont Print and Frame requested two saints dressed as superheroes in the Canal Street mural. Durkee needed a reference of the superheroes, and so he dressed up to get the poses in place. While he said he cannot draw comic book characters, the figures in the mural are skillfully drawn and painted. Perhaps Durkee remembered his childhood, when he watched his father draw superheroes and was amazed at what a true artist can create. Today, he too is a skilled artist.

To see more of Durkee's work, visit DurkishDelights.com.