Dr. Mike Novotny

Transdisciplinary Artist-Scholar-Practitioner

Over the past five years, Mike Novotny has developed a transdisciplinary creative practice centered on painting, writing, participatory art, and community-based facilitation. His work explores warriorship, identity, memory, transition, belonging, place, and human becoming. Drawing from more than twenty years of military service, he creates work that holds strength and vulnerability, grief and renewal, and fragmentation and integration in conversation.

In 2022, Mike founded Warrior Heart Gallery, an independent Texas-based creative practice serving veterans, military personnel, first responders, and communities navigating personal and collective change. Through Warrior Heart Gallery, he designs and facilitates experiences combining visual art, reflective writing, storytelling, symbolism, and dialogue. These experiences have included individual and collaborative painting, creative-care workshops, retreat events, public programs, and community art projects. He extends these practices by providing Creative Care Boxes, or portable art materials and reflective prompts that participants can use for personal exploration and connection.

Mike’s recent community-engaged work includes partnerships with military installations, veteran-serving organizations, nonprofits, and community wellness programs. In 2026, he facilitated a collaborative art experience with U.S. Border Patrol personnel that resulted in a 36-by-36-inch mixed-media painting composed of participants’ marks, imagery, words, and colors. He has also developed recurring arts-based programming with Endeavors Wellness Center in El Paso. His commissioned painting What We Carry, created for Crescent Moon Theater Productions, emerged from a gathering of veterans and refugees and explored themes of displacement, memory, family, hope, and belonging.

His studio and exhibition history dates back to 2015. Some of his professional highlights include the 2022 DECA Art Auction in Youngstown, Ohio; the 2022 El Paso Art Association Figurative Art Show, where he received a Judges’ Award; the 2025 ALLTRU Gather Gala and Art Auction for Special Operations in Washington, D.C.; and a 2026 Art Exhibit at Southwestern College (Wild Heart Gallery) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His artistic portfolio was examined in 2025 by the Journal of Veterans Studies (JVS). His art is expected to be featured in the Black Veterans Project’s Dark Green Report in late 2026, and it will also be on the cover of the Journal of Military Veteran and Family Health (JMVFH) in 2027.

Mike published Guardian Rising: Meditations for the Future Warrior in 2024. His recent research integrated painting, photography, poetry, pilgrimage, reflective writing, and place-based inquiry to examine military transition, identity reconstruction, homecoming, and belonging. Across these endeavors, he continues to expand art from a private studio practice into a shared process of reflection, meaning-making, connection, and public engagement.

To request a workshop, facilitation, consultation, or one-on-one coaching session, please use the contact link below.