ARTIST STATEMENT
EXHIBITION HISTORY
GALLERIES
MY FAVORITES


Artist Statement -



My art fuses my love for animals, concern about the welfare of the planet and twisted sense of humor. I call my work "environmental surrealism". Influences include kitschy portrayals of animals from mass-marketed popular culture, the nightmarish imagery of Hieronymus Bosch, Beatrix Potter, Maurice Sendak, the writings of Edward Abbey, and my work as a wildlife rehabilitator.

My "religious animals" paintings are a reaction to the ubiquitous fundamentalist religion in America as well as the idea propounded by most organized religions that animals have no souls. Some of my animal characters have founded their own religion, complete with nuns, popes and televangelists. My environmentally-themed paintings feature naughty animals having fun turning our superiority on its head by demolishing industrial objects. Grizzly bears with jackhammers "restoring" a freeway, a mountain lion with an acetylene torch decommissioning a bulldozer, arctic wildlife laying waste to a Hummer dealership and animals tearing down billboards for housing developments are some of the characters who populate my paintings.

I also enjoy the disquieting effect of combining body parts from different species. As someone who works with small animals I often ponder the evolutionary process - why creatures look the way they do. Questions as what a bird would like with a squirrel or rabbit head pass through my mind. The hybrid animal paintings are a way for me to indulge these curiosities where no one gets hurt.

Artist Exhibitions



Selected Solo and 2-Person Exhibits:

2010 Notre Dame De Namur University Library Gallery

2008 Kaleid Gallery - San Jose, CA

2007 Environmental Surrealists – Esteban Sabar Gallery, Oakland, CA (two-person show)

2006 Animal Insurrection – Gallery at Thoreau – San Francisco, CA

2006 Animal Insurrection – Wiseman Gallery, Rogue Community College, Grants Pass, OR

2005 Spectators to Destruction – First Street Gallery, Eureka, CA

2004 What the Animals Tell Me – Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA

2003 Institute for the Study of Women and Gender, Stanford University, CA

2002 Ecology Center, Berkeley, CA

2000 Inside/Out – Women's Center, U.C. Santa Cruz (2-person show)



Selected Group Exhibits:

2010 Sea No Evil benefit show for Sea Shepherd — Riverside Municipal Auditorium, CA

2010 Mischief — Studio Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2010 Auto-Manic — Root Division, San Francisco

2010 Free As A Bird — Cactus Gallery, Eagle Rock, CA

2009 The Warm & Fuzzy Show — Eclectix Gallery, El Cerrito, CA

2009 Dementions — Eclectix Gallery, El Cerrito, CA

2009 Solo Mujeres — Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA

2008 Speak Out: Art, Design and Politics — 516 arts, Albuquerque, NM

2008 The Circus Show and Other Atrocities — Verge Gallery, Sacramento, CA

2008 Yelling at Your Environment! - Harrington Arts, San Francisco, CA

2007 On the Wing – Exploding Head Gallery, Sacramento, CA

2007 California Centered: the Environment – Merced Multicultural Art Center, Merced, CA

2007 Juried Exhibit – Los Gatos Art Museum

2007 Housewarming – Works Gallery, San Jose, CA

2006 Vanishing Borders – Herndon Gallery, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, OH

2006 Curating a Better World – A Shenere Velt Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2006 Flux – Works Gallery, San Jose, CA

2006 Gallatin River Gallery, Big Sky, MT

2005 Earth and Sky IV – Gallatin River Gallery, Big Sky, MT

2005 Trashed: The Dark Side of the American Dream – Gallery Route One,
Point Reyes Station, CA

2005 Alpha/Omega – Maude Kerns Art Center, Eugene, OR

2005 Crocker-Kingsley Exhibit – Crocker Museum, Sacramento, CA

2005 Fools – Works Gallery, San Jose, CA

2004 Nature's Inspirations – The Farm, Woodside, CA (benefit for Committee for Green Foothills)

2004 Art & Politics – O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA

2004 Globalization – Campbell Hall Art Gallery, University of Western Oregon

2003 Arts on Fire – Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA

2002 Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, CA

2001 Eco-Art is Eco-Activism – Arts & Consciousness Gallery, JFK University, Berkeley, CA

2000 ANA 29 – Holter Museum of Art, Helena, MT


Awards:

2007 2nd place, Painting, statewide juried exhibition at Los Gatos Art Museum, awarded by juror Marian Parmenter

2004 Honorable Mention, statewide juried exhibition at Los Gatos Art Museum, awarded by juror Phil Linhares.

2003 1st place, Arts on Fire statewide juried exhibition at Sanchez Art Center, awarded by juror Keith Morrison.

1990 1st place, Art for Animals Classic. Sponsored by the National Anti-Vivisection Society.



Selected Bibliography:
2007 February featured artist, Satya Magazine

2006 Dayton Daily News, Dayton, OH, "Earth, Wind & Satire", December 17
2006 Shotgun Review, May 23, "Michelle Waters' 'Animal Insurrection'
2006 Daily Courier (Grants Pass, OR), "Best Bets", January 12, 2006

2005 North Coast Journal, October 20, "Eco-Art", art beat column by Katherine Almy
2005 Humboldt State News, October 3, "Mixed media, eco-art shine at HSU"
2005 Saratoga News, Saratoga Sampler, April 13, 2005

2004 Pacifica Tribune, June 9, 2004, "Sanchez Art Center Celebrates Coming of Summer with Environmental Art"
2004 Saratoga News, Saratoga Sampler, October 13, 2004

2003 Artweek, March 2003, Reviews, "Eco2 at Falkirk Cultural Center" by Frank Cebulski

2001 Face of the Future (Seoul, Korea), "Ecofeminism" by Ahn Ji-Young...

Artist Publications



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Artist Collections



Numerous private, corporate, museum, gallery and government collections detailed information coming soon.

Artist Favorites