Description
The artworks in the Ash, Mud & Tears collection were produced for an exhibition of the same name – a collaboration with textile artist, Jude White exhibited at the Northern Regional Community Gallery, Ballina, NSW in 2023.
‘Book of Ash & Memories’ is one of two artist’s books produced for this exhibition. Working with a single sheet of watercolour paper, Michelle paints and draws, then folds and cuts to form the book. The cover was made using the techniques developed for the large painting ‘Nothing’s the Same’, using painted wood panel that’s cut and reconfigured. The interior has soft, watery fields of colour that blend and seep across the page. Michelle used inks, charcoal (gathered from the 2019 bushfires near her home) and graphite.
Michelle has an eye for unconventional beauty, being drawn to the worn and scuffed and rusty. Silversmithing and jewellery design were her first areas of arts training and so Michelle brings that focus on the smallest details to her 2D and 3D work.
