People-Nature-Art with Fred Michel

Description

Inspired by a love of plants and gardening, Fred Michel explores Horticultural Art by creating still life images of plants and their parts that capture what is often ephemeral and short-lived. “My work incorporates reality, change, metamorphosis, repetition, juxtaposition, pattern, and on occasion altered color, whimsy, and humor,” he says. He will be at the Gilley on Tuesday, Sept. 9 as the People-Nature-Art presenter for September. This signature series brings artists, writers, carvers, and creative types of all kinds to the Museum to explore and share the interplay of nature and their art. There is a public reception at 6 p.m. followed by his talk at 7 p.m. Both are free, but registration is required. You may attend in person at the Gilley, or watch the livestream via Zoom. When you register lease let us know whether you’d like to attend in person, or online. “Connections with plants, soil, weather, and seasons tie us to the Earth and provide a framework of life and renewal – benefits of being a gardener,” Michel says. “Watching plants sprout, grow, develop, satisfy their purpose, and then rest or become compost is a constant source of fascination, joy, and wonder.” His images are broad and diverse, ranging from botanical to mandalas, patterns, textures, and designs made from plants he disassembles and rearranges. His images “show plants as they are or staged to show them as imagined. These images can be simple having a single subject while others include a wide variety of flowers, leaves, seeds, stems, fruit, bark, roots, vegetables, etc.,” he says. “Pieces are arranged, piled, and sometimes cut and shaped to provide close and introspective views and imagined worlds. My images include various motifs such as mandalas, starbursts, spirals, circles, grids, lines, progressions, animations, whimsy and other forms and themes including aquariums, constructed horizons, flocks of birds, and even cosmic images.” Michel’s work has been selected for numerous juried shows including New York’s Salmagundi Art Club and Maine's Barn Gallery, Irvine Gallery, River Arts, University of Maine Atrium Gallery, the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art 2014 Biennial. His works have been featured on covers of Science, Holland Herald, and Buried Choirs and have been included in Architectural Digest and online by Styling Magazine and Abyss. He lives in Westbrook, Maine with his wife, landscape painter Caren-Marie Michel. People-Nature-Art is sponsored, in part, by our friendsat Bar Harbor Bank & Trust.