SALISBURY — “It was a spontaneous art event,” said Mike Ploplis of Salisbury as he shared about his exhibit at Heart of Salisbury, 120A E. Innes St., Salisbury.
Ploplis said he had been “finding a resurgence and a reawakening to pursuing a career as an artist” noting that three years ago he had still been daily creating art but not really focusing on his art business. He had an entire collection of paintings which were inspired by botanical images, with plans to do some limited release prints or have the collection available for purchase online.
That was when, he said, out of the blue Wivianny “Wivi” DeHaas, owner of Heart of Salisbury, called him. They had met several years ago as he was closing up his studio at Railwalk Studios & Gallery.
DeHaas offered to have an exhibit and he agreed. They planned for the event and worked for two days installing the pieces until they were satisfied with it, he said.
“Wivi’s got a great eye,” said Ploplis, and “honestly I trust her curating eye probably more than anybody other than myself. We were all very humbled and floored by the entire presentation. It was really beautiful. I know that my art plays a part in the exhibit as a whole, but the way that she put it together is really beautiful. It really elevates, I think, what my art should look like.”
The exhibit, “Fauxtanicals,” includes original paintings, prints, giclees and one-of-a-kind upcycled clothing art, will be on display through the end of July.
Ploplis said they were excited the exhibit had been extended, “so even more people will hopefully get an opportunity to come see it.”
An opening reception was held May 29 at Heart of Salisbury with a mixture of family and close friends and new faces, he said, which was nice to get their feedback and hear their perspective.
“They were particularly interested in how I used dish soap and spray paint to create the paintings,” said Ploplis.
He felt it was well received and talked with people explaining the art process in detail and then everyone started asking questions. He enjoyed the conversations with everyone, he said, and was disappointed when it was time to leave.
Each of the pieces is available for purchase, he said, adding that he loaded everything on his website, artbyploplis.com.
“Every print is available in all these different sizes,” said Ploplis. “It’s been kind of a pretty exciting little journey itself getting that launched.”
His favorite medium to use, he said, is common enamel spray paints that can be purchased at a hardware store, and the combination of or the use of dish soap, which he said was suggested by an artist friend.
“He influenced me with the idea of using dish soap as a masking medium, a blocking agent so when you apply some colors over top of one another, the soap will act as a protecting layer, and it creates a batik effect,” said Ploplis.
He didn’t have official art training but has always had an artistic aptitude, something his family also possesses. He said wife Erin is talented in the culinary arts as is their son Reilly, a UNC-Charlotte graduate and sous chef in Charlotte, and daughter Raegan, a rising eighth grader at Gray Stone Day School, who is a watercolor artist, and he said has inspired him with her work.
He noted they are his biggest supporters and they, along with his in-laws, Michael and Kristine Turco and Raegan’s godparents, Ed and Sharon Campbell, were at the reception to show support.
Other attendees also wanted to show support as Glenda Dyson said she was familiar with his art, and had some of his pieces already, which is what brought her to the exhibit.
“I want to support him however I can. He’s awesome,” she said.
Chuck York said he had seen his work years ago and was impressed by his brilliant use of color.
“He was an inspiration to me,” he said. “I started painting years ago. It’s fun.”
DeHaas said she enjoys Ploplis’ art style and “you can just see life coming out through his work. And the way he started doing art is so meaningful” noting he used it for therapy and and “I feel like that really connects with a lot of people and when you look at his art, you can just feel the vibrancy coming out of it,” she said.
She noted using soap to layer the acrylic paint giving it a more textured layers look, noting it “kind of gives you energy.”
As for how he first started his journey, he said he worked as a paramedic, starting in the 1990s as a firefighter and transitioning to the EMS side in Guilford County. He was a senior paramedic there for approximately eight years and then moved to being a flight paramedic with Videant Medical Center in Greenville. When he made the change, he was probably 1-½ to 2 years into therapy for PTSD, he said.
“I just sought different ways to improve my therapeutic approaches to treatment and I was introduced to art therapy,” said Ploplis, “and started exploring the different avenues of creativity through painting, and it took off. I really, really enjoyed the ability to distract myself from the day to day stressors and the triggers and stuff that complicated my mental health journey.”
Ploplis said when he decided art was going to be a genuine pursuit in life, it was an “easy decision to give up the things that were causing me so much pain in the first place. I loved being a flight paramedic. It was like reaching the highest degree of professionalism for my career path, but at the same time, it didn’t help my mental health, especially through the transition of the pandemic and everything else.’
He also learned when he was going through struggles of building his art business, it forced him to slow down, enjoy the process more and “develop the skills and abilities to make better art and so I take a lot more time now in the process of creation.”
He is also working on a line of clothing, available online, called Winging It, doing bleach artwork on hoodies and T-shirts, using the pendulum to almost create a framework with bleach and then embellishing with brushwork to create feathers for a wing.
Ploplis expressed his gratitude for the chance to have people stand in front of his work.
“It may mean nothing on video to anybody or in a photograph, but on the wall I think it does, my work does invoke at least curiosity, and I like that. I like the fact that it kind of bewilders people as to how it all comes to fruition. I think that’s what’s neat about it,” he said.
