Poetry in Motion: Michelle Larsen, Paint Sculptor by Viviana Puello - Grimandi

Conscious creation is the art of bringing to reality a design that helps elevate human consciousness to promote a positive change in the viewer. It has the gift of impacting audiences from different walks of life while allowing them to peer into the artist’s mind. Michelle Larsen’s art offers that positive experience through her mesmerizing three-dimensional paintings. Her creative process involves a masterful manipulation of tissue paper, a unique technique given her great recognition in the art scene. The underlying message in Michelle’s works often captures the passage of time.

Michelle's creations, brimming with color and movement, can take up weeks to complete by hand as she individually applies hundreds of tissue papers to piece together her compositions. Michelle's artwork aims to explore nature's bloom and decay.

In this revolutionary mixed-media technique of creating paper sculptures on canvas, Michelle uses oil paint with bold colors to apply to her sculptured paintings, creating a three-dimensional artwork that protrudes from the surface. It’s an innovative technique she developed after many years of experimenting with mixed media.

Drawing inspiration from her surroundings, Michelle reflects on her canvas scenes from ordinary life, human struggles, and life in Arizona’s mountains, where she lives. She's also inspired by the western lifestyle and the beauty of nature.

Michelle Larsen studied art at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in Denver, Colorado, where she graduated in 1980. She began her fine art career in 2009 and dedicated her time to developing the new technique. In 2011, Michelle started creating works with her signature style and is still immersed in her multimedia works.

Michelle Larsen’s art attracts lovers of paintings and sculptures. Viewing audiences are drawn to appreciate her canvases from various angles. She describes her subjects in a vibrant tale of colors that provoke intrigue and inspire emotions. The shapes of paper wrinkles manifest into awe-inspiring pieces of art done by a skilled and highly intuitive creative mind.

Larsen says her career began with “typical oil paintings on canvas.” A new inspiration arrived “after waking one morning from slumber with a vision of a paper-formed canvas. The process began slightly, using small amounts of paper creating a texture, then expanded into a three-dimensional piece that protrudes from the canvas.”

Portraits were her focus when she lived in a cabin in the mountains of Idaho. “In 2018 I moved to the desert in Arizona,” she says, and her focus changed. “I paint more florals now because the southwest lends itself to native American traits and desert plant life. Many of my buyers live in the city and have contemporary homes. I paint for my buyers. I hope to stimulate the audience with a nontypical image that goes beyond the painting.”

Taking viewers “to a place beyond this dimension” is something Michelle Larsen says she loves to do. Because she’s been chosen for prestigious exhibitions worldwide, she’s helped to put Prescott, Arizona, on the international art map. Like the papers that are parts of her paint-sculptures, Larsen’s talent is making ripples and in art, and she plans to keep riding their waves for a long time into the future.

Viviana Puello - Grimandi is a bestselling author, entrepreneur, founder/CEO of ArtTour International. She’s also the founder of the Winner’s Journey podcast and Create4Peace.org. www.vivianapuello.com