"I had one job in a grocery store making $1 an hour, but I didn't like it," he says. "So, I sought contract work. I would take contracts to paint houses or paint signs. Then I would compress my time and make better money than my peers."
While he didn't fully realize it, the pattern of setting goals and compressing the time would vault him to the forefront of the art world.
Against all odds, he was accepted into the Art Academy of Cincinnati after graduating from high school in 1968. Hundreds of students competed for the 33 positions available.
A year of big-city life and expenses was enough for him, so he left the academy and returned to his beloved Kentucky with his new wife, Linda. Their romance began at church camp while in high school.
Mitchell says the next 10 years were filled with "the Army, a variety of jobs and many mistakes. It was a time of searching, learning, and developing an unbreakable love/partnership bond between Linda and me. I worked in the construction business as a carpenter, studied business at school, and never stopped painting."
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