Featured Artist of the Month : Michelle Vara Feb. 2019 | TheArtList - Art & Photo Calls for Visual Artists and Photographers.

Michelle Vara

Wilton (Saratoga), NY

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency & vibration.” - Nikola Tesla

My work is interested in the politics of the universal consciousness and tethered to the lineage of the Abstract Expressionists; it engages with Jungian ideals that there is a shared consciousness tapped into and revealed through the viewers' engagement with abstracted color and form. My work is not bound in one medium or style, but joins multiple platforms of material, and processes that I believe necessary for subject engagement. The use of recycled material makes oblique references to karmic notions of rebirth and regeneration along a continuum of time.

“Images that are true symbols … are the best possible expressions for something unknown…” – CG Jung

How and when did you start creating art?

I have always created art.

I grew up on the Jersey shore where the sunrise and ocean entertained my imagination, and tourism inspired making and selling artwork. My family says; I could always be found with a sketchbook, pocket full of findings, and my best friends the dog and horse.

What media and genres do you work in?

I am a multimedia artist and place no boundaries on material or process.

Over the years I have polished many technical skills and created recipes, for different processes, in order to allow a visual vocabulary to contextualize a series of work.

Genre: My overall interest is in untapped human potential; I work in a positive hopeful manner and use Nauman statement:

“A true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths” as a guide.

Who or what are your influences?

LOL: There are so many, and they continually change.

I love information so reading and background research, travel, goes into each work of art. As the subject of the work expands, the circumference of influence and ideas change.

I guess if you asked me consistently over time what my influences were: I would have to say Nature, Ecology, Meditation, Human potential, Enlightenment, Energy, History, Science and Philosophy.

The who can be: Newman, Smith, Kandinsky, Chadwick, Hillard, Beuys.

There’re so many influences that are interesting; from my position, there’s not enough time to read and see it all.

What was your inspiration for PS39?

My inspiration for the piece called PS39 is science, cosmic matter, and the work/theory of Steven Hawking.

Hawking was the first to set a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. (Wikipedia)

Describe your creative process?

My creative process is fluid in time and space, shifting shape with each new idea, but always based in looking, seeing and feeling.

All the work is sparked by experience and then research.

Research for me can mean: years of following an eagle family, photographing, drawing, notes visiting specialists or even neighbors that live on the nesting pair breeding grounds, ensuing clues and reading about the birds’ habits. With all the background done, I ponder the memories and try to feel the bird’s essence; these feelings evoke visual thought (pictures), that are then translated into abstract form, where the material is chosen for its visual language to capture things like presence and motion. The completed piece lures the viewer into their own conclusions.

What are you working on currently?

I have work in many stages and subjects, but the new projects are:

Space Consciousness- this is an expansive set of work with one newly finished metal sculpture (PS39_photograph shown) and many drawings.

Roadmantics- Tar Paintings created with a hubcap as paintbrush, to stimulate awareness of the complicated ecological impact, the Tar Sands in northeastern Alberta, Canada, has on our world. This project also has subcategories like: Protagonist- the main character in the story of plastic, fuel, consumerism.

The Tribe– uses the American Indian- Kachina Dolls, as a launch point for the wearable sculpture that captures spirit, memory, and story through everyday objects, and how that changes with the interaction of humans.

And a few others without series titles.