Michele Mikesell, Jasconius the Whale, 2021, Oil in canvas, 45x58 inches / 144x147cm

SAINTS & SUPERSTITIONS

Using portraiture and symbolism to discuss the role of superstition and religion within the human experience, Michele Mikesell's newest body of work "Saints and Superstitions" references mythology and fairy tales in the artist's classic and refined style. Each painting incorporates symbols, protectors and guardians while weaving in religious figures with superstitious symbols.

KORE

FIERCE CREATURE - SERIES

THE FORTUNA - SERIES

THE TOOLSET COLOURFIELD - SERIES

THE ALBATROSS SERIES

THERE ARE SOULS LIKE STARS - SERIES

When taken in the context of numerology, 12 is representative of the whole. The number 12 represents a complete cycle of experience in which an individual can reach a higher conscience. There are 12 daylight hours and 12 night hours. 12 is the product of the sacred number 3 and the secular number 4. It is the sum of 5, which is life, and 7 which represents good fortune. There are 12 inches in a foot. In Christianity there are 12 disciples and 12 tribes of Israel. There are 12 days of Christmas and 12 grades of school. There are 12 step programs, 12 jurors, and 12 notes before the octave in music. Finally, there are 12 signs of the zodiac into which we all fit.

My work consistently travels along a general vein of the universal human experience. The twelve main paintings are based on the individual signs of the Zodiac. This is the Universal that I chose to focus on. It is my intent that the installation of these paintings in this space will have the viewer move from one painting to the next in a ritual mimicking the religious tradition of moving around the stations of the cross. In this way, one will have metaphorically met a representative of every star sign, 12 pieces that make up the whole of humanity. They will have completed the cycle of experience in order to reach a higher conscience.

— Michele Mikesell, 2014

MICHELE MIKESELL

b. 1973, Alabama, USA

Lives and works in Dallas, Texas, USA


In 2002, Michele Mikesell earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a minor in graphic design from Texas
Women's University in Denton, TX. Mikesell completed her Master of Fine Arts at the University of
Oklahoma in Norman in 2004. Mikesell is a Dallas based artist, and has been represented by DECORAZON
Gallery since 2006. Mikesell's work can be found internationally in many private and corporate collections,
and exhibited in national and international art fairs including, London Art Fair, AQUA Miami; SCOPE Basel,
Miami and New York City; The Suite Art Fair, Dallas; Art Santa Fe; Asia Contemporary, Hong Kong and the
Affordable Art Fair New York City, London, Hong Kong and Singapore. Mikesell recently had a solo
exhibition at the Ardmore Museum of Art in Oklahoma, and was featured at the 2014 Art meets
Architecture exhibition in Los Angeles.


She has been featured as one of today’s top Pop Surrealist artists, in publications like Juxtapoz Magazine,
and her work characterized by playful and thought provoking narratives.

ARTIST STATEMENT

“Creating individuals is what I am most interesting in the studio. It is my hope that these portraits will be familiar
characters to the viewer, subjects we recognize and identify with. My work consistently travels along a general
vein of the universal human experience. This particular group of paintings is an iconographical departure from
previous work in that literal human features have been introduced. Other aspects of this work directly reference
the anthropomorphic petro glyph characters in which I based my interest in painting. These realistic, stylized
faces placed within loosely interpreted animal shapes and costumes narrate a continued thesis of dichotomy
and metaphor - comparing and contrasting human ideas with animal instinct. Irony, contradiction, humor and
tragedy, have been continued themes in my work and are illustrated not only within the image, but within the
actual paint and surface of the painting.


I am inuenced by a diverse and extremely eclectic group of different movements including Abstract and
German Expressionism, Art Informal, Children’s Art, as well as the 17th century Dutch masters and the current
Pop Surrealist movement. I work with little or no pre-conceived nished piece. My process is a constant acting
and reacting from and within the marks subliminally laid into the paint.”
- Michele Mikesell, 2015