Micah Johnson works on a piece in his studio in York Beach in early August. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)

YORK — Micah Johnson did not go to school to become an artist. He played baseball.

The Indianapolis native dreamed of being a Major League player since early boyhood, and clung hard to that dream. He spent years chasing it in high school, college and baseball’s minor leagues. Primarily a second baseman, he played a total of 61 big league games for three teams before his career ended in 2018, at the age of 27. Baseball fans are fond of saying that even a very good hitter, someone with a .300 average, fails to get a hit seven out of 10 times. As he’s pursued a career creating art, Johnson has found that baseball’s grind was a perfect training ground.

Penguin Random House

“A lot of people have a hard time failing, but baseball teaches you how to fail on a daily basis. I don’t care how good you are, you’re going to fail,” said Johnson, 34, of York. “With art you go through phases that are ugly. I think what makes a good artist is when they can embrace the mistakes and keep pushing until that moment of discovery, keep working relentlessly.”

Johnson opened his Micah Dreams store and studio in the heart of York Beach in June, settling in Maine largely because his wife is from here. His art began gaining national attention a few years ago after he created a character named Aku, a 12-year-old Black youngster who dreams of exploring space. With his giant space helmet, Aku appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 2022 as the part of the illustration for a story on the metaverse, the concept of a shared virtual world. Johnson is also writing and illustrating a middle grade novel called “Aku: Journey to Ibra,” which is due out in March from Penguin Random House.

Johnson has created art for baseball cards for Topps, depicting Negro League stars like Jackie Robinson, who was a member of the Kansas City Monarchs before he become the Major Leagues’ first Black player. He’s also designed alternative caps for several MLB teams. He’s met with and worked with youngsters as part of the White Sox Amateur City Elite (ACE) program, aimed at getting more Black youth interested in baseball. He designed a patch in commemoration of Juneteenth, showing Aku wearing a White Sox uniform and his helmet.

“We could have chosen any artist for these projects, but I don’t know if they would be as special or inspiring as him,” said Troy Williams, the White Sox’s director of ACE and community baseball. “He’s a guy who knows Chicago and who dreamed of playing baseball. He works very hard to try to inspire kids and push them to be their best selves.”

Inspiring the younger generation is a big part of Johnson’s work as an artist. He said he created Aku after he heard his nephew asking whether Black kids can become astronauts. In his store and studio, in the heart of bustling downtown York Beach and across the street from the ocean, he welcomes youngsters and hopes that as an artist and a former MLB player, he might help them think about what’s possible in their own lives.

He worries that the world, especially online, is creating an “illusion of success” that lowers kids’ self-esteem and self-confidence. His message is about chasing dreams through hard work and persistence, not appearing to be better off than somebody else.

“I see kids all day in here and I worry their confidence is so low. They see all this supposed success on social media, people making a lot of money,” said Johnson. “But they’re only 12 years old. They can be anything, I want them to realize that.”

Studio assistant Anysa Williamson plays with Micah Johnson’s daughter, Bizzy, at the Micah Dreams store and studio in York Beach. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)

ART IN THE CLUBHOUSE 

Johnson grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana, where his father worked in banking and his mother taught Spanish. He can’t remember a time when he didn’t want to be a Major League Baseball player. His family has video of him around the age of 3, telling everyone he was going to play baseball when he grew up. He was a fan of the Chicago Cubs and the flamboyant slugger Sammy Sosa was among his early heroes.

He also played guitar and piano growing up, while playing a lot of baseball. He played through high school and then at the University of Indiana. He was selected by the White Sox in the 9th round of the MLB amateur draft in 2012 and, after a few years in the minor leagues, he made his Major League debut with the White Sox in April 2015.

He played a total of 61 games over the next three years with three teams, the White Sox, Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers, hitting .224 and playing infield and outfield. He also spent time playing in minor league cities like Oklahoma City; Gwinnett and Rome, Georgia; and Charlotte and Durham, North Carolina. It was during that last stop that he met Katie Watson, who grew up in Portland and would become his wife.

Micah Johnson’s baseball cards next to a figure of Aku, a character he created, on the counter of his store Micah Dreams in York Beach. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)

Johnson’s art career started in an unlikely place, in the Dodgers clubhouse in 2016. As part of a sort of rookie initiation, new Dodger players were asked to name something they did well — besides play baseball — and then demonstrate that skill for the rest of the team. Johnson had recently attended a “paint and sip” session, where customers drink wine and paint, so he blurted out “paint.”

Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts, forever a hero to Red Sox fans for stealing second base in the 2004 American League Championship Series, told Johnson to show off his painting talent by creating a portrait of Dodgers’ legend Maury Wills. Johnson was pretty nervous about painting for his Major League teammates, who included veterans Justin Turner, Adrian Gonzalez and Clayton Kershaw.

“But everybody told me I was good, and so I just kept going,” said Johnson.

During his last year in professional baseball, in 2018, Johnson says he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and prescribed lithium. He said the medication “sucked the life out of me” for a while and he struggled with motivation, eventually retiring from baseball.

Micah Johnson at his store in York Beach, where he sells his creations. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)

It wasn’t long after turning to art that he came up with the idea for Aku, in 2020. He created the image of Aku as an NFT (non-fungible token), a digital collectible which can be bought and sold. Besides being on the cover of Time, sculptures of Aku have been constructed and displayed around the country. Johnson has been working on the book for about four years and says coming up with the story and writing it has been a “grueling process, one of the hardest things I’ve done.” He studied writing and story structure as part of his process.

In the book, 12-year-old Aku is a daydreamer who inherits an astronaut helmet from his grandmother, and finds out he can travel through the metaverse and explore space. Johnson says the book is the first in a planned series.

Johnson works in a variety of mediums, including creating images digitally. On a Monday in early August he was working on a large oil painting of a child’s face. Another canvas in the studio was a charcoal work of a young boy in a baseball cap, sitting down and  looking seriously at something in the distance. He says it’s an image inspired by himself as a youngster.

“I think about how I when I was a kid, I’d play three games in a day, come home and practice more, then plop on the couch to watch baseball,” said Johnson. “So I tried to incorporate intensity into the look (of the boy in the picture) because I’d be studying the game.”

Micah Johnson with a charcoal piece he was working on, in his York Beach studio and store. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)

On the same day, Johnson’s wife Katie and daughter Bizzy were in the store briefly, before heading to the beach to enjoy sunshine and temperatures in the 80s. Johnson and his family live within walking distance of the store and studio and one of the things Johnson likes best about that location is the steady stream of young people passing by and coming in.

“Interacting with kids who come in, interacting with families, that’s by far my favorite part of this,” said Johnson, while wearing a paint-splattered apron. “I want them to talk to somebody who’s been able to chase their dreams and be successful.”

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