Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Creatively Featured - Michelle Alkerton

Hi everyone! Happy Wednesday! Quick round-up of happenings here:
  • We're having an ATC Swap! Find out more HERE.
  • The monthly challenge is in full swing! Check it out HERE. We also added a button on the sidebar that links to the monthly challenge so you can find it easier. 
  • I'm looking for more artists for Creatively Featured! Please email me (Heather) if you are interested.
This week we are welcoming the wonderful Michelle Alkerton. You can find her at her blog Brain Angles - Invisible Ink.




Tell us about blogging and how it's worked for you.
I was finding my Zoomshare website too difficult to maintain and updates weren’t getting much traffic so I thought blogging was a better alternative. I had intended it more for my writing, but became more involved and confident in visual and tactile art. Now I tend to share more art and less words, oftentimes posting more than once a day.


What inspires or influences you artistically?
Everything inspires me. lol I love texture, light, shadow and nature. One of the things I love most about the internet is the wide range of artistic talent I find that gets me thinking in a new direction and helps keep my creative passion alive.


Which aspect of your art do you enjoy most?
I probably enjoy imagining a piece the most, although it makes it difficult to get any sleep. I have yet to create what I visualize in my mind, but I’ve come close a few times. I also love experimenting with new materials and techniques.


Have you exhibited work or taught classes?
I exhibit my work online through my Picasa albums and my blog and have exhibited a few pieces in the local annual art show. I don’t have the skills, patience or energy to teach, but would love to take some classes.


How do you go about the design process?
I guess you would call most of my design process intuitive, although I have attempted some form of discipline by roughing out some ideas on the computer.


Do you work to a design or theme or just go with the flow…or something else entirely?
Even when I begin with a design or theme, I usually end up going with the flow which results in pleasant surprises. When working with actual paint and canvas it more often results in what I refer to as tortured canvasses with too many layers of paint and gesso. lol


Can you tell us a little about your methods and/or techniques?
A large part of my work is what I call digital mixed media. I will usually start a piece using a traditional medium and then photograph it in it’s different stages. I then play with the resulting image on the computer and use various graphics programs to arrive at a whole new piece of art. I tend to like my digital pieces better than the traditional ones as I have very little patience and love the UNDO command. Since I have difficulty with my hands it is usually a better and more satisfying option. 

I also create what I call photopaintings, where I manipulate a photograph with one or more graphics programs to give it an artistic or painterly effect and since recently discovering a painting program called ArtRage, I have made more attempts at art that is created entirely digital.


I’ve always enjoyed combining my creative interests and am constantly amazed by and grateful for the software developers that create the wonderful programs that enable me to experiment and make my work look good. Years ago I felt it couldn’t be considered art if it wasn’t created on paper or canvas with pencil, paint or other traditional medium, but I’m glad I broadened my views. Now, it doesn’t matter how it’s created, the result is my art and helps me share my world and maybe inspire others.

What artistic plans do you have for the coming year?
I hope to develop more mixed media abstracts, play more with texture and experiment with watercolour and ink in the coming year. I would also like to participate more in the local art community and have already started in that direction through the contacts I made at the last annual art show.

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for the feature spot Heather and presenting my art in a great format :). I'm happy there are places like Artists in Blogland to enable artists to share their work and get to know each other.
    Stay inspired!

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    1. So thankful to have you Michelle! It's a great interview and your work is just beautiful!

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  2. I follow Michelle's art blog and love her work. This is a lovely feature and I'm happy to learn a little more about her and to have discovered your blog!

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  3. process intuitive indeed! Michelle's work inspires me & often surprises me as it continues to twist & turn along new paths~ her comment about a 'process intuitive' approach to creating art would also describe this viewer's experience. thanks for sharing her work.

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  4. I am daily, oftentimes more than once a day, humbled, inspired, and given wings to wonder from Michelle's sharing. I enJOYed reading this featured bit BEcause Now I feel I know the person Michelle a little bit better.

    Indeed, she writes very little [compared to ME, who is a windbag, but then how DOES that translate into the keyboard??? a "key-bag?!"] but her work says so much. I have been introduced to many things that were right here all the while but until seeing how Michelle played with it, hadn't the first clue HOW it worked or what could BE done.

    I am so glad for happening upon Michelle during AED month in November. Along with that cheery happenstance I got connected with other artists and blogs and challenges and really just opportunities to share and stretch as an artist. I don't know that I would have stuck around as I have were it NOT for her generosity in responding to my many queries.

    I love, too, how she says she's NOT got the skills, energy, or patience that teaching requires. As a teacher, with little ones, mind you, I have taken so much from Michelle's sharing and made it "my own" when I teach. It's always felt just fine, too, BEcause her sign-off [and sometimes her ONLY words] are Stay Inspired!! Which I DO, as an artist, as a writer, and yes, even as a teacher.

    Wonderful feature on a wonderful human who also happens to BE an extraordinary artist, in many, oh so many turns of that phrase...

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  5. Bravo Michelle! Your expression via interview is fully as vibrant as your art. I could hear you talking as I read your words. I could see your facial expressions as I let myself slip into your art. Thanks for sharing yourself in this amazing way! Keith

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  6. Michelle, so wonderful to find your art here... i love your process and your digital work is awesome. You are a master with the layers, textures and colors in your pieces. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing! xox

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  7. Woohoo - hi Michelle. What a pleasant surprise to find you here - as you know, I've been a long-time follower and supporter - I just LOVE your work. And thanks to you, I "Stay Inspired".

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  8. These works are so beautiful. Thankyou Michelle for sharing your process, I am dumb on graphic programs but I now see what they can do. Thankyou Heather for sharing Michelle's works, I have found new source of inspirations.

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