Michael Velliquette

Region: Midwest

City / State: Madison, WI

My work insists on a new spiritual vocabulary—one that combines aspects of early twentieth-century formalism and contemporary sensibilities about the handmade with a visual lexicon I have developed over the past two decades. This vocabulary is bright, dense, and ornamental, and is punctuated with recurring motifs such as hands, eyes, flowers, planets, mandalas, and goofy smiley faces. Color plays a powerful role in my work, conveying a sense of optical fullness or aesthetic abundance. The laborintensive nature of my practice correlates with a kind of studioinduced mindfulness, while broader themes address the creative process in relation to matter, sensation, perception, reaction, and consciousness.