Michael Gladwin Enns, a fourth generation Floridian derives his imagery from the subtropics. Enns started painting with famed landscape painter Albert E. (Bean) Backus at age ten. Backus' influence as a painter of realism was a new genre for Mr. Enns who was more fanciful and abstract with his art. The life force and pattern were always of enormous importance to the young artist. The symbols of Catholicism and the simple forms of plant and animal life became iconic in his three-dimensional constructions.

After graduating from Parsons School of Design in New York City he began silk-screen printing with Andy Warhol and worked with that artist until his death in 1987. Enns continued his exploration of tropical and religious forms during this time showing at different East Village venues and showing at Gotham Fine Arts. Enns' interest in printing expanded and he worked with other "celebrity" artists like Rauschenberg, Haring, Basquiat and Scavullo.

After 15 years in New York, he decided to discover his "Southern roots" and began an association with artist Jon Eiseman in Atlanta, GA. Interiors are very important to the Southern sensibilty and the two created environmental works such as growing grass on walls, rock walls and ceilings, and walls of rusted nails and screws. There were, of course, less radical approaches as well because of the conservative outlook there. Enns painted more murals than he can count. Along with Eiseman, their public works include Bell South for Sci-Trek museum and the Childrens Museum of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Returning to Florida, Enns' concern for the conservation of Florida's environment has given new meaning to his perceptivity. The subtleties of life reveal themselves with age. Florida is a subtle place where changes in flora and fauna reveal themselves like the light in a Morandi still-life. Most guests of the subtropical climate are not tuned into its quiet revelations.