Michael Farrell began making photographs and assembled objects in the late 1960s during his college years in the Fine Arts Department at Indiana University. After earning a Master's degree in Chicago at the Institute of Design he moved to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1972 to work at the Nebraska ETV Network (NET Television), where he currently holds the positions of Television Production Manager and Adjunct Faculty at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

During the Seventies and Eighties Michael created a large body of very personal work in photography, drawing, collage and assembled objects. The work was not shown publicly until his first one-person exhibit at University Place Art Center in 1991.

Since then his work has been seen in exhibitions at and is included in the collections of the Museum of Nebraska Art, the Joslyn Art Museum and the Great Plains Art Center. His work has been shown in several regional venues in neighboring states and is included in a large number of private collections. He is a recipient of the Nebraska Arts Council's Individual Artist Fellowship.