STATEMENT OF WORK

I became an artist in high school where the need to create visual imagery started with photography. In the halls of undergraduate and then graduate school I developed my language with painting. All sorts of things were being tossed out that I saw as a source for content. The items ranged from cloth to paper, plastic and paint. The waste I collected was cut up, placed on the surface or tossed onto the painting. The work that came from this period 1993-1995 established my perspective and became the conscious way that I work today. These scavenged elements from studio floors tapped into a saying I have always lived by, “waste not want not”, which became how I contextualized my actions. This approach allowed a freedom that I’ve never felt with a brush stroke, and the original intent of this tossed detritus engaged my inner scavenger.

As an artist I use raw canvas, pencil and scavenged collage elements to begin my investigation with the medium.  This process has become how I put together my paintings today. The collaged elements are altered then attached to the surface, line work is added then rubbed in. The dimensional forms range in size from crumbs to large mounds I refer to as, “Attachments”. Attaching is an action which has always felt driven by language because it easily becomes a metaphor for what we are attached to.

Drawing has been a big component to my paintings and works on paper from the beginning. The trajectory led me into a series, Pencil Painting, which were completely made from pencil. These paintings were flat and went from loose representations of my photographs to a depicted movement with pencil. Pencil Painting led me into the topic of the profile because the need to connect with the history of painting is an undeniable urge. These investigations of line work, collaged elements and use of the figure from photos have established my work in a place that is still evolving.

Michelle Fierro 2025