About Magnum Arts
In Michael K. Lyman is founder and creative director of Magnum Arts, an arts-related endeavor whose motto is Inspire, Create, Engage. His first graphic e-book, Your Speed Our Greed is available on Kindle, and his first graphic novel Dark Office, will be re-introduced as both a digital download and a physical book, with more graphic novel projects in the works.
He is a certified visual arts teacher at Oak Grove Middle School in Clearwater as well as a veteran of the military with a degree in graphic design and photography who provides inclusive art and photography instruction to home school students. In Florida, he has taught Cartooning and Drawing since 2007 at towns throughout Pinellas County, and the Morean Arts Center in St. Petersburg.
He has provided art-as-therapy to at-risk teens at juvenile detention facilities as well as veterans recovering from PTSD and conducted art activities at the prestigious Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg. He has also been an annual guest art teacher at the Shorecrest Preparatory School, Our Savior Lutheran School (both in St. Petersburg), and the Lighthouse Center for Creative Learning in Brandon, where he has taught kids how to unleash their creative potential.
He has participated in area comic-cons and street festivals, and has also volunteered at The Spring, a domestic violence shelter in Tampa, providing art workshops for residents and their children.
Embracing his love of costuming and geek-dom, he is a long time member of the 501st Legion, a worldwide Star Wars costuming organization. In that capacity he has organized appearances of Star Wars characters at the Forum in Tampa, All Childrens Hospital, VA Hospitals among others. He has been on television numerous times to promote Star Wars-related events, has been in countless parades and participated in numerous fundraisers, sometimes providing photography services for such events.
An Active Life
Military portrait, Ft. Sill, 1985 
On the weapons range 
Firing a LAW rocket 
Basic training howitzer 
Summer camp counselor, Dobbs Ferry NY 
Art teacher at the Dali Museum, St. Petersburg 
Visits to VA hospitals 
Organizing Star Wars visits to local childrens’ hospitals 
Leading a squad of Stormtroopers through Hollywood Studios 
Live TV appearances 
Hanging with Vader 
At my table at a local comic-con 
Guest teaching at local schools 
Showing kids how to draw 
Private lessons for differently-abled students 
Receiving my badge from the Pinellas County Sheriffs Department 
Meeting Lee Majors, The Six Million Dollar Man himself, a childhod hero
