Featured Artist Mikal Winn 'Bejeweled, Bedazzled and Festooned', By Sandra Hale Schulman by HWY 62 Art Tours on Friday, September 11, 2009 at 10:19am · From a dairy farm in Ohio to the fingers, waists and necks of some of the world’s most famous and beautiful people, Mikal Winn bedecks the world from his dusty desert 29 Palms studio. “I’ve been pretty lucky with my work getting out there,” he says sitting outside his fantasy world showroom/studio underneath a giant gilded leopard. “I loved the Indiana Jones movies as a kid, those gleaming chests of gold and gems seemed so exotic and really inspired me. “ After a few years of art school in Columbus, Ohio “I almost lost all interest in it there” he admits, he moved to California and started shopping around his gem studded belt buckles. A showroom picked them up and “they went like gangbusters” he says. “I liked that because they are unisex, though I make them sparkly to appeal more to women.” He found a rep who was also just starting out and has been with her for 8 years now as she sprinkles his fairytale work in galleries and stores from NY to LA to Japan. His work has graced the pages of fashion rags Elle, Lucky and Teen Vogue. “Ironically my first cover was uber country star Keith Urban wearing a belt buckle on the cover of Playgirl Magazine.,” he says with a smile. Since then Halle Berry, Britney Spears, and a slew of high priced human mannequins have also worn his work. He loves that high-profile people like his work, but he prefers to not have to deal with them personally. “I hesitate to meet my idols,” he says. “I don’t want to be disappointed., so I let my rep and the stylists she deals with do the schmoozing.” Meanwhile back in the studio, Winn has been working on giant jeweled animals – boars, deer, coyotes and snakes. Using real and faux gemstones, crystals, fossils, vintage chains, buttons and frames, he creates over the top beasts of beauty, striking and funny and jaw-droppingly weird, “I wanted to take something kind of scary and make it fun, something I would want to see if I was a kid. Take something people may think of as ugly and make it beautiful.” Winn’s other project is his luxe Wonder Valley rental property Moon Way Lodge. With a large pool, loft, hip artwork and views for miles, Winn and his partner Jeff Hafler also run Bubble Beauty Salon, a retro salon that also doubles as a mini-museum of vintage beauty products. These fun, offbeat places make farflung Wonder Valley a real destination.