ARTIST STATEMENT

Michelle is an acrylic artist who abstracts the landscape, paints
non-objectively and scavenges for interesting and sometimes odd
found objects to create colourful, textured mixed-media collages
and assemblages. Michelle has been painting for more than 25 years
and has studied at the Haliburton School of Art and Design.

 

BIO

Michelle enjoys combining painting, collage and assemblage in her work. She believes trying many different things including pottery, weaving, writing and photography can each, in their own way, expose her to ideas that can be integrated in interesting ways. 

 

There’s a story in every painting, and a single brush stroke begins a process to uncover the story of what that canvas will become. Michelle paints intuitively to infuse all the energy she can into the work, solving each problem as it arises. She feels that experimenting and playing with all aspects of the process is like being back in Grade 6 art class where everything was fun and art wasn’t so serious. And, art should be fun.

 

Michelle gravitates toward lush, saturated high-key colours. Drips, marks and mixing on the canvas create wonderful and surprising abstract and non-objective elements. She’s not afraid to finish a painting with a piece of fabric, yarn, paper, recycled cardboard or even found items. She has more recently become a fan of Weldbond glue because now, found items can become assembles that include heavier items like fishing rope and plastics that have washed up on the beaches of the Bahamas.

 

Usually there are 3 or 4 things going at a time in the studio and while she sings out loud (badly) she’ll move from piece to piece while things drip or dry or sort themselves out. Some paintings feel like they’ve painted themselves. They are easy linear progressions. Others feel all over the map and almost don’t make it. And, those that don’t survive provide a nicely textured surface for a new life in a different piece. Michelle enjoys sharing the process of how each piece came to be, the layers of energy and images that are hidden, and the decisions that were made along the way.