by SOPHIE BIRD
Artist Mike Cagle is an attorney working for Alaska Legal Services Corporation in Kotzebue, Alaska, but prior to moving 33 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Cagle worked for 40 years as an illustrator and graphic designer in Bloomington. He has been a contributor to Bloom Magazine since 2007.
Cagle, who spent his formative years living in Bloomington and neighboring Brown County, graduated from Indiana University’s Individualized Major Program (then called the Independent Learning Program) in 1979. He later returned to IU to earn an M.F.A. in graphic design, graduating in 1991.
During his college years, Cagle illustrated for some of the university’s underground publications, like Fun City! and Primo Times, and for The Ryder.
“I was sort of on the very peripheral edge of some of the scenes of the so-called alternative or underground publishing,” Cagle explains. “A very diverse and very motley assortment of people worked on these things.”
Cagle’s professional life has seen stints at many well-known Bloomington establishments, including as a staff artist at the Indiana Memorial Union and a graphic designer at WTIU-TV/ WFIU-FM, in the interactive media department at The Herald-Times, and at Cook Medical, where he created medical and technical illustrations.
After many years in the art and graphic design fields, Cagle decided to apply to law schools for a change of profession and scenery. “I felt, honestly, like I’d gotten about as good at art and design as I was going to get,” Cagle says. “I thought, ‘I’d like to shake things up a bit and see what else I can do.’” He attended the Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, graduating in 2017, and moved to Kotzebue the next year.
For aspiring artists, he offers the following advice: “You don’t need a lot of talent, what you need is a lot of practice and the desire to do it. You might not become a Michelangelo or a Rembrandt, but you can definitely become better than you are.”
Find Mike Cagle online: https://michael-cagle-bg8x.squarespace.com/.
See a photo gallery of Cagle’s work:
In 2007, this illustration accompanied a story about Bloomington businesses that give back to the community through donations, volunteer work, and much more. 
This 2019 illustration shows park-goers enjoying a family-friendly film at the City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department’s Movies in the Park program. 
In 2008, Cagle created this drawing to accompany Bloom’s story on the fifth annual Bloomington Pride Film Festival. The festival is now in its 18th year. 
Critter Control of Indianapolis taught Bloom readers about the habits and harmlessness of bats in the 2008 story that accompanied this Cagle cartoon. 
This illustration of the City of Bloomington’s Drool in the Pool event, which welcomes furry friends to swim in the city’s public pools before they close for the season, was featured in Bloom’s “100 Reasons to Love Bloomington” 10th anniversary issue. 
The April/May 2009 article that was published alongside this illustration enlightened Bloomingtonians to the many options of local gardening clubs. 
Indiana University’s Folklore and Ethnomusicology Student Association organizes its annual Ghost Walk to show visitors some of the campus’ particularly haunted locations, as shown in this illustration from 2019. 
In Bloom’s 2011 “50 Reasons to Love Bloomington” issue, the talent at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music was immortalized in this drawing. Pictured are (l-r) Joshua Bell, Sylvia McNair, Violette Verdy, Leonard Slatkin, David Baker, Menahem Pressler, and Janos Starker. 
Bloomington has been listed among the Top 10 best places to retire by Money Magazine, Forbes, and AARP, as shown by this Cagle illustration, which ran in Bloom’s “100 Reasons to Love Bloomington” issue in 2016. 
Bloom’s December 2018/January 2019 issue included an article—along with this illustration—about The Dog House, Bloomington’s only cage-free doggy day care. 
In 2009, the City of Bloomington’s Historic Preservation Commission encouraged Bloomingtonians to take “A Walk Through Bloomington’s African-American History” with a new walking tour. 
Every weekend in February 2009, kids could observe and imitate real working artists as part of WonderLab’s Science of Sculpture series, the focus of this story. WonderLab Museum of Science, Health and Technology is currently celebrating its 25th year. 
This 2019 cartoon depicts B-town native Mike Cagle’s adventures in Kotzebue, Alaska, which have shown him the importance of protecting the environment. A lawyer, Cagle now lives there. 
Bloomington’s diversity was celebrated as one of the “50 Reasons to Love Bloomington” in Bloom’s five-year anniversary issue. 
Biking helped put Bloomington on the map because of the movie Breaking Away, and in 2009 the city was recognized as a “Bicycle Friendly Community”—one of only 100 in the country—by The League of American Bicyclists. 
On Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January 2009, Bloomington’s knitting community held a group knitting event, depicted in this illustration, to raise money for the Indiana Women’s Prison.
