artist statement
My paintings are sensitive depictions of personal struggle and growth: the desire to feel loved and accepted, the plague of self-doubt, the struggle to establish identity and the fear of loss. I use the intimacy and vulnerability from my own lived experiences as a platform to connect larger themes of motherhood, femininity, desire and fear with a personal anecdote or individual moment. I paint rich emotional landscapes that are as vast and as they are lonely; a simultaneous sense of freedom and feeling trapped.
My work is both figurative and abstract, a combination of the literal and the emotive. Each painting is created through a mix of fast, stream-of-conscious mark making, drying and layering, and thoughtful detail work.
“She captures a raw truth in all her work and every piece she creates is so emotive and powerful. Work like hers is what fuels humanity, empathy, and essential contemplation in this world.”
— Arianne Keegan, Director of Communications, Legal Action Center and Founder, She/Folk
ABOUT MICHELLE SILVER
Michelle Silver grew up on the edge of the Catskill mountains in New York and spent her early adulthood in a vibrant art community in Boston, where she graduated magna cum laude from Boston University in 2009. She then moved to Brooklyn, where she surrounded herself with inspiration, had her first solo exhibition, joined a band, and developed her voice in graphic design. Desiring a peaceful place to create and raise her family, she moved to a woodsy home on the side of a mountain in the lower Hudson Valley, NY in 2019. Silver is currently the Co-Founder and Gallery Director of a combined art gallery and tattoo studio in Beacon, NY called Distortion Society, in addition to a freelance branding and web designer and studio artist.
Michelle Silver is also a graphic designer and art director working in branding, web design and illustration. To check out her studio and view samples of her design work, please visit michellesilverdesign.com