Miniature model artist shows the secret door to his studio

Saturday, 30 November 2024

Ghostcat uses his skills as a carpenter and props technician and applies them to his artwork.

He’s known for his miniature models of iconic pre-quake Christchurch buildings, but it took some time for Mike Beer, 44, to find his artistic footing.

This Ghostcat artwork was made for his next exhibition featuring old Christchurch buildings.

The scratch build artist, who goes by the name of Ghostcat, lives in South New Brighton with his wife Katie, a music teacher at Hornby High School, their daughter Lydia, 14, two dogs and a cat.

MIKE: I was born and raised in Birmingham, UK. My love of art came from the movies, especially 80s horror films, but there was no path to make art my career.

The miniaturised Canterbury Sale Yards will feature in an upcoming exhibition.

Beer traded his art for these pieces by Christchurch graffiti artists Yikes and Dcypher. They hang on his living room wall.

When I was 13 I was told by a careers adviser I would either end up working in retail or construction. I left school at 15 and had lots of jobs, including getting into police training, but I only lasted a month.

The needle felted image of Walter, Beer’s late cat, was made by his mother who brought it over on a recent visit.

After a year in Australia, I realised I needed a trade so I became a carpenter which made me miserable for years, but it gave me skills which are transferable to my career as an artist.

We moved to Christchurch in 2007 – we basically stuck a pin in the map when deciding where to go. I worked as a carpenter here but when the GFC stuck I retrained as an arborist, which I did for six years.

I’d always drawn and sculpted as a hobby but one day my wife saw an advert for a props technician at the Court Theatre. That job gave me the confidence to start a solo artistic venture, Monster Mailman, a made-to-order service where I sculpted tiny replicas of DVDs of classic films. I had lots of customers in the US.

I’d started following scratch builders overseas and realised no-one was doing it here. We lost so many amazing buildings in the earthquakes so I thought it would be great to start recreating those urban environments – the buildings or parts of those buildings, such as a sign, a door or a facade.

During Covid, I lost my cat Walter, who I had a strong connection with. My wife bought me a book called Ghost Cat, about dealing with the death of a pet, and I loved the name so much I adopted it.

Ghostcat with the bookshelf he built to create a secret entrance to his studio.

I’m currently working on an exhibition and book called Ghosts on Every Corner, about 13 former Christchurch buildings and the people who lived in them or owned them. It’s really a love letter to the city.

We owned our first home in the UK but since moving to New Zealand we’ve moved house 16 times. We wanted to try living in different areas.

Ai-Da, the world's first AI robot artist, presents her portrait of Alan Turing at Sotheby's. The piece, expected to sell for up to £150,000, raises questions about art's emotional depth. Bidding opens from 31 October to 7 November 2024.

The ornamental copper kettle on display in the living room belonged to Beer’s grandmother, who died in the UK last year.

We bought this place two years ago. We were keen to live by the sea, we needed a granny flat for my mother-in-law and I needed the space for my studio. This house had all that.

All I know about it is that it’s a former church that was relocated onto this site in the 80s. It was already renovated but one of the first things I did was build a secret door to my studio.

My mother-in-law works in a charity shop so she got me lots of old books which I cut in half and stuck on the door, so it looks like a bookcase.

The plan is to add a shed to house my workshop and I’ll make another secret door but this one will be a toilet and when you pull the cistern the door to my workshop will open.

We’ve done a lot of time landscaping and planting shrubs, trees and vegetables because the section was pretty barren when we bought it. Now I’m in my 40s I get a lot of joy from pottering in the garden.

I love this house and never want to move again. Death can take me out of this house!