Mike has 30 years of experience as an artist and the unique and developed talent to execute any images that his mind can create. He is actively pursuing the visions that keep him awake at night and is posessed by the desire to push himself to the next level be the best he can be. Mike's desire is to create unique and individual pieces of art for each client and he is driven to preserve the essence of true Custom Painting.

Mike Learn Airbrush and Design was founded in 2002 in a 600 sq ft shop on the back of our property in Tempe, AZ. Over the first year we quickly gained an expanding client base and we hired my sister Darla to help handle the business. By the beginning of 2003 it was obvious that we needed more space, so we leased a large shop and set to work promoting the business. Mike’s core clients were sending more bikes than he could handle, and referrals were quickly coming in. New employees were hired to speed up the turn around process, but soon, Mike knew he would need some help with the paint and artwork. In August we brought Krash on board to help Mike with the huge workload.

2004 began with Mike Learn Airbrush & Design picking up V-Twin Magazine’s honorable Painter of the Year Award during Daytona’s infamous bike week.  Mike was presented with the renown golden statuette at the annual V-Twin Biker’s Ball.  Business was booming and an amazing amount of work was pumped through the now 6600 sq ft building. Mike and Krash had projects from around the country and many of them were "high profile". Many of the industry’s well-respected builders brought their custom built bikes to be finsihed with MLA’s paint including; Kendall’s Easyrider Centerfold Tour bike, JNC S&S Shootout, Death Valley Choppers’ Las Vegas bike, Anna Nicole’s TrimSpa bikes, Brad Pitt's Rooke Custom, Paul Yaffe's Charity Bike and countless other projects. 

At this time we had begun work with Discovery Channel's Biker Build Offs and Rolling Chrome (my marketing and adversiting firm) represented dozens of industry hot shots. Combined with the constant stream of sheet metal, and screen printing busines, the shop was a bustling mass of energy and production 24/7.

And then something happened to make us re-evaluate our posiitioning. At the end of August, 2004, my sister Darla who had been in charge of day to day operations, PR and managed the screen printing shop, was diagnosed with Leukemia. The blow was paralyzing and I spent nearly 6 months in the hospital with her, working on my lap top in the corner of the room, as she went through chemotherapy, radiation and a Bone Marrow Transplant. Darla recovered for a short period of time, however the Leukemia returned and in 2005 she had a second Bone Marrow Transplant.

All the while, Mike and I started looking at things a bit differently. The values of time and quality of living were brought into the discussion and we knew what we needed to do. We needed to diversify. We needed to simplify. We needed to change. We put together a plan, and we spent the next 18 months implementing it.

We reached out to the music industry, a natural extension of Mike's passion for building and playing guitars, and began working with Jackson/Charvel to expand and renew their custom shop program. We took on a number of album cover projects and we filed for a US Patent on one of Mike's guitar designs.

We decided to create a line of merchandise to take to the art industry with the flagship product, Mike's Precision Airbrush, the MOJO leading the way. We filmed 3 instructional DVDs and nurtured our SEM Color Horizon's endorsement to R & D some new, exciting and top-of-the-line paints created especially for the custom painter. We created a strong alliance with ROLAND, and added stencils and vector design CDs to the product mix. This coupled with our educational web site LearnAirbrush.com, completed the retail part of the plan.

In February of 2006, Darla took a turn for the worse, and ultimately lost her battle with Leukemia on April 30th.

We were now at a crossroad. With one chapter of our lives closing, we thought maybe a geographic change may help renew the spirit and aid in healing. We took a vacation to Colorado for a friend's 40th birthday, and for "fun" looked around at some properties. The night before we were to leave to come home, an ad in a local magazine caught our eye. A large property for sale that had both a house and a very large shop on it. On the way out of town, we swung by the listing. One look at the 3600 sq ft shop, complete with paint booth, and I think we both knew that we would be moving to Colorado, though it took us several days to admit it to each other.

So now here we are, full circle, back to working out of a shop on the back of the property, however both are considerably larger than the 2002 version. Mike and I have a renewed passion for our business. The product line is booming. We have our own Magazine. Mike is painting bikes, guitars, album covers and the occasional vehicle. Our online community is strong.