Michele Maule is our next featured artist at Redux, showing her original works in our main gallery from Dec 1st-Jan 31st.
The Opening Reception is from 6-9:30 pm on First Friday, Dec 5th, so swing on by, meet the artist and share a sip and a nibble with us!
Biography: Michele Maule received a degree in art from Portland State University in 2005 and has since become a full-time artist working in Portland, Oregon. She loves creating in a variety of different mediums including gouache, ink, etching and printmaking. The themes she explores in her work often include where we live, how we live, outdated forms of communication and Pacific Northwest native animals. She is interested in the human impact on our environment and the speed at which our technology advances and strives to express her contemplation of the ever changing landscape around us through her work. She has been exhibited extensively in Portland OR, as well as in Detroit, Arkansas, New Hampshire, and New York.
Statement: This series of work explores alternative housing ideas. The past several years we’ve been seeing a huge boom in very large, expensive houses, in many of our affordable neighborhoods in Portland. Small houses on large lots are being torn down to make room for two 3-4 story houses in the same space. Often these houses tower over the rest of the block. They’re made quickly and from materials that are not of the same quality of many of the surrounding homes.
My tree house illustrations are based on the idea of living small, building a shelter yourself, out of recycled materials in a space where a person is within their environment. I imagine myself reading, making tea and doing my daily chores in these little homes. I know that logistically speaking, many of these houses would not work, but I love the idea of ‘What if?’
The rest of this series explores the simple beauty in nature. Moths, the butterflies ugly cousin, is represented in several of my pieces. I loved exploring the different patterns, colors and shapes that occur in their soft, velvety wings.
And feathers are the last piece to this series. I often find them while walking my dog and pick them up. Each line that is drawn, each color that is painted helps me to center myself. They’re so simple but full of many colors and lines.
