Michelle Blade (b. 1981 Los Angeles, CA) makes paintings and drawings documenting time, closely examining the stillness, strength, persistence of the natural world. Like Charles Burchfield painting through the seasons, taking note of the waxing and waning of blooming flowers, leaves, and quality of light, Blade endeavors to document the seasons of her parenthood, watching her daughters as they interact in places where three generations of her family have also engaged. Blade contemplates and intersects these different times, as she creates a form for memory, infusing color and texture in her acrylic and ink on cotton poplin canvases.
Michelle Blade has been exhibited throughout the world, including Taipei, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Stockholm, London, Tel Aviv, Netherlands, and Hong Kong. Blade’s work has been featured in “The New York Times Magazine”, “The Los Angeles Times”, “The Paris Review”, “Juxtapoz”, “The California Sunday Magazine”, and “Art Maze”. Michelle Blade holds a BA from Loyola Marymount, Los Angeles (2003) and an MFA from the California College of the Arts, San Francisco (2008).
ARTWORKS
The End of the Blue Jacaranda
Placenta Tree
Still Life
Cowboy on the Gabrielino Trail
Orange Grove Lineage
The Space of Grace
Twin Shadow
Shakespear Was a Gardener
The Gap Birth Created Between Us
Becoming Mythic (Oak Grove Hike)
Between Dream and Reality (Joshua Tree at Night)
Between Freedom and Fear (Olive Swimming in Backyard)
Her Strength, Her Softness (Olive in Joshua Tree)
Loping Beauty (Coyote)
Morning Rituals (Peacock)
Pieces of the Sun
Radiant Idleness (Lula in Backyard)
Recognizing Ghosts (Shine)
Recognizing Rack (Cypress Trees)
The Desire to Portray a Love (Self Portrait)
The Drive Home (LA Fwy)
The First Bloom in Some Years (Joshua Tree Bloom)
The Light Within (Lula and Olive in Living Room)