Franklinton Exhibition Showcases ADD Artist's 'Fantastic World'

Living with Attention Deficit Disorder often has challenges. But Columbus artist Michael Siculan says ADD can also be a springboard to creativity. Siculan’s exhibition titled “Chaos Equals Art: My Life With ADD” is currently on display in a Franklinton art gallery. Step into the Wood. Metal. Art. gallery at 1009 McKinley Ave., and you’re confronted by what’s described as “…the fantastic world of puppeteer Michael Siculan.” There’s a large mural of a circus bearded lady hanging on a wall. Throughout the gallery marionettes hang by their strings. Other pieces have whimsical, distorted, even grotesque faces. “I love surrealism and I guess all these objects are actually surreal objects,” says Mike Siculan. Mike Siculan has filled several rooms with hundreds of vivid objects – pieces he’s made himself or has collected over several decades. His inspiration? A 1950s Columbus childhood. "The famous monsters, the cheesy movies when we were kids, and the puppets of Lazarus’ sixth floor. We’re still kind of reliving early memories," Siculan says. Childhood memories help mold Siculan’s artistic efforts. His work is also influenced by his Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD. “I think a lot of people with ADD have a really creative side. And a creative outlet helps to focus this,” Siculan says. Assembling the exhibit took more than two weeks Siculan says. Because of his ADD, he’d often jump from one piece to another as he readied the items for display. “I feel like people with ADD kind of have to live through this chaos so you have to sort of come to terms with that,” Siculan says. The artist did have a stabilizing influence, his friend Franco Ruffini. Ruffini helped arrange and hang the pieces. “As you hang them up you enjoy them, you sort of marvel at them and you really think through and really feel what they’re about,” Ruffini says. Black light makes several pieces glow in the darkened gallery. Often the pieces grab your attention. “As you can see it’s very colorful. There are a lot of different images and we’ve tried to lay them out in a way that makes people stop and think a bit,” Ruffini says. “Franco and I, we worked this exhibit very much like improvisational jazz. Franco would come up with an idea and then I would take off of that idea; he would come back. It flows very much like a piece of music in a way. It shapes itself,” Siculan says. Siculan fell in love with puppets when he received his first as a gift when he was 5. Puppet shows were staples of 1950s television; Lazarus department store had elaborate puppet performances. Through the years, Siculan has collected and made a whole host of marionettes, each with its own personality. “This is Queen Puppaphobia. She is kind of a cross between Zsa Zsa Gabor when I made her; very regal and aristocratic and she is the queen,” he says. By manipulating their strings Siculan brings the marionettes to life. They waltz across the floor often to the delight of visiting children. “The little ones just go crazy. I mean when they see these marionettes for the first time; they’re alive, they are a person to them and they want to hug them,” Siculan says. Wood. Metal. Art. is celebrating its one-year anniversary this month. Gallery owner Patrick Roberts is pleased to have the Siculan exhibition marking the occasion. Roberts says showing the Siculan collection is part of his gallery’s mission. “We want to be a different gallery. And what we’re looking for is an opportunity for some people that maybe didn’t quite fit in to have somewhere to exhibit,” Roberts says. Chaos Equals Art runs through November 1st.