Mitchell Kolbe, a native of North Carolina, was a top ten candidate to receive a scholarship to the Art Students League of New York City in 1973. Kolbe's work experience thereafter includes commercial art, graphics, murals, illustration, and sculpting. He has called Florida home since 1983 and has concentrated his efforts as of late on fine art commissions and plein air events. In his words, “Plein air painting is a visual haiku, poetry distilled. It shares with haiku implicit honesty and directness and deals with images of the natural world.” Kolbe's work can be viewed in The Kessler College, Percy/Geiger Collection, N.A.S.A. Astronauts Hall of Fame and the Art Students League.