Art eCommerce

Contemporary Artist Shop
Mike Egan

Mike Egan built his artistic career at the unlikely intersection of funeral service and fine art, working as a licensed embalmer and funeral director throughout the 2000s while developing a distinctive visual style informed by German Expressionism, woodcut printing techniques, and his daily exposure to mortality's rituals and realities. Born outside Pittsburgh in 1977—numbers that recur throughout his work—Egan creates paintings that explore themes of death, religion, and the human experience through bold graphic line work, saturated colors, and recurring imagery of skeletons, devils, black cats, and grim reapers that draw viewers in with folk art accessibility before engaging them with deeper existential questions. His professional success required transitioning from embalming work to full-time artist while building an international gallery presence, maintaining an engaged social media following that connects his personal narrative (including sobriety and health struggles) to his artwork, and developing multiple revenue streams through original paintings, limited edition prints, merchandise, and his signature "Tiny Deaths" series on small wood panels.

Braunsberger developed a Squarespace webshop with integrated e-commerce functionality that could serve both fine art collectors discovering his work through gallery exhibitions across the US, UK, and Canada, and casual fans seeking accessible entry points through stickers, tote bags, and postcard sets. The site architecture separated his established gallery career—including solo exhibitions at venues like Copro Gallery and Thinkspace Projects—from his online shop offerings, while maintaining the bold, graphic aesthetic that defines his paintings through minimal interface design that lets the artwork dominate. The result was a platform that functions simultaneously as professional artist portfolio documenting his exhibition history and press coverage, and as revenue-generating online store offering price points from $5 stickers to original paintings, reflecting the reality of contemporary artists who must balance fine art credibility with accessible merchandise that builds broader audience connection and sustainable income.