Michelle Baker, Artist
Email: michellevest@gmail.com Ph: #828-989-7665
About Michelle Baker
Ms. Baker is a visual and performance artist. She holds a BA in Philosophy and Mathematics from St. John's College, Santa Fe, NM. She also studied photography and sculpture at Studio Arts Center International (SACI) in Florence, Italy.
Ms. Baker has been a professional photographer since 1992. Her passion is portraiture. She has a background in photojournalism and black and white fine art photography.
In 2000, she attended the Tamalpa Institute in Marin County, California. She uses the Tamalpa work with her clients in addition to her own creative process, fostering the dialogue between writing, drawing and movement. With these techniques, a person can creatively access the endless wellspring of stories held in the body.
In 2006, Ms. Baker met Tanya Taylor Rubinstein of Project Life Stories and Storyhealers. Under the direction of Ms. Taylor, Ms. Baker wrote, performed and toured her one-woman show, Sole Survivors, in New Mexico, Philadelphia, Washington, DC and New York City. Ms. Baker has also been a co-facilitator with Ms. Taylor-Rubinstein, and assisted her in the 2011 Santa Fe Solo Performance Festival.
Ms. Baker is a SAG actor and a freelance writer. She is also a poet and a children's book author currently represented by Gotham Artists Agency.
She recently relocated to Asheville, NC with her son, and enjoys this abundant and supportive arts community.
Testimonials
"I had the great fortune of working with Michelle Baker on my latest solo show, snug harbor. This is my fourth solo show and I have been teaching One-Person Show creation for ten years. I must rave about Michelle. She is exceptional. Kind, focused, gentle, generous and wise. She creates an environment in which you organically discover your story and the true heart of your show. Michelle is a solo show mid-wife! She lovingly guides you as you give birth to your show and you almost don't even know it's happening because she makes it so painless. If you are creating your very first show or if you've been doing this for years, I wholeheartedly recommend working with Michelle. It was a fabulous experience and I was THRILLED with the results."
Tracey Erin Smith
Founder of www.Soulo.ca
Creator of the hit solo-show, 'The Burning Bush!'
"Michelle's compassionate and powerful presence supported my experience of being able to let go and dive into my internal world without judgment. She is both a midwife and magician, inviting in what is waiting to be expressed."
Deborah Heikes
M.A.,LPCC
Certified Gestalt Therapist
#505-690-2130
Artist Statement
Influenced by my study of light and shadow in my black and white photography, I was compelled to explore the use of strong color in these abstract diptychs and triptychs. In this series, Still Falls, the juxtaposition of form and free form, light and shadow defines the free fall of color.
Though I have painted for as long as I can remember, my formal training is in photography. I enter into the process of painting in a similar manner as I do my journalistic photography. When does the photographer know when to click the shutter when watching the world through the lens of a camera? Henri Cartier-Bresson best describes this as the decisive moment. In 1/60th of a second, the photographer freezes life as it passes by, and captures a stillness, a memorable image, that, to the photographer, best represents the essence of the scene, of life, in that moment.
So it is with my abstract exploration. Many people ask how I know when I am finished with each painting. Just as I watch the world through my camera, I witness the paint and the colors pouring onto the canvas. I move with what the colors, the shadows, the space reveals to me, and in an instant, I snap the shutter so to speak. I capture the essence of what the painting has been revealing to me through the many layers, and I know the painting is complete. I see the painting as a split second of an entire process that does not necessarily end when I put down the palette knife.
Each painting is a world unto itself that I enter into, explore and exit. These colorful images are much like a photograph taken in a rain shower; though we might stop the shower for 1/60th of a second, we know the rain still falls.
Michelle in front of Still #1, acrylic on canvas,
triptych, 108"x 48"
Remnant #1, acrylic on canvas, triptych, 108"x48"
