Michele Mikesell has been heavily influenced by children’s art and the art of mentally ill artists such as Dubuffet, Tapies, Burri, Kandinsky, Klee, and Miro. She also finds inspiration from drawings by German Expressionists, Art Informal, Art Brut, Art Provera, and the CoBrA Artists.

These art movements and artists are known for automatism, working from a stream of conscious. Mikesell works in the same way with little to no pre-conceived notion as to what the finished piece will look like. Her process is a constant acting and reacting from and within the marks subliminally laid into the paint.

Mikesell's process of adding, scraping, and sanding the paint results in smooth polished surfaces that contract with the use of color and brushworl, producing an effect in the medium itself that is mirrored in her subject matter. Born in Huntsville, Alabama, Mikesell receied her MFA in painting from the University of Oklahoma. Over the past seven years, she has worked with and studied under Susan Sales in Dallas. She has had numerous solo exhibitions in Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Dallas, and Los Angeles.

BUY WORK BY MICHELE MIKESELL