Alex Murtaugh - Artist

Alex graciously donated 8 of his original works of art to be displayed in the PEARLS Assessment space.  We are happy to have him on the team!

Alex Murtaugh is an Autistic Young Adult who grew up in rural LaPorte County, Indiana. He has always been a true "Outsider” artist In spite of his brushes with very supportive art teachers while in school. To their great credit they did not try to change his style but gave him encouragement and freedom.

His method of expression is uniquely his own. He works 8 to 10 hours each day creating his “artpieces”. Each composition might include people, animals and locations, real and imagined; made up with elements of his own photography and illustrations with some found art elements. Each can take up to 3 months to complete because of the complexity of detail a casual observer might not even notice and a close observer may not be able to see. For instance, if a character is reading a newspaper, Alex creates the newspaper. If there is a bus, at some layer of  development the interior of the bus is complete to the ad posters on the wall. This is all part of the complete fulfillment of each piece, the total story. He will not take short cuts.

Alex’s  high school art teacher regularly entered his work in local county, state and national contests. And he regularly won 1st and 2nd places in local competitions and Honorable Mentions in national competitions - without any reference to his Autism.

Alex works on the latest iMac mostly using Adobe Photoshop. His camera is a Canon Powershot 2Sis. He lives and works on the shore of Lake Michigan in The Town of Two Creeks just north of Two Rivers, Wisconsin.