My work is alphabet-like, with individual pieces functioning as fully realized objects and as the building blocks for paintingbased installations. The work unfolds across diverse media and scale, and includes large oil paintings, tabletop drawings, standing floor panels, animations, watercolors, and spray-painted drawings. Each material contributes a particular surface and has its own personality. A mindful engagement with modern painting sensibilities anchors this multiplicity. By sampling the modern canon indirectly, through the lens of memory and through the

As a person who enjoys the activities of a given time or in a given setting, and the people who take part in them on a daily basis, I train myself to notice relationships again and again, and have the ability to propose new ones. Internalizing why flux and movement can become life’s experienced ideas excites and motivates me.

Doodling within self-imposed limitations has long been my way of inducing introspection and conjuring new images. In these recent works on paper, wavy bands of color and curvaceous lines overlap repeatedly to create dense, fluttering spaces. A cursory Rorschach-like inspection provides the viewer an array of elusive possibilities: cartoon eyes throwing shade, biting mouths adorned with sharklike teeth and clownish smirks, butterfly wings, and veils of alternating microscopic and celestial forms. In the end, I play the role of a hard-working spider, entombing shapes in a

Art, ultimately, is a futile endeavor.

It is the preserve of the over-privileged classes.

Micromentalism offers artists the only possible way forward.

I am therefore a Micromentalist*.

* I celebrate my exquisite hypocrisy.

Place and space, as amorphous terms, are my primary interest in visual exploration. The mental presence of images printed or words read inside a book hold similar power to an empty room in an old house; a two-dimensional piece of paper or wood can be either a window unto a world or an object itself. As poets put together words that form new and unexpected meanings, I place together different forms of place and space in hopes of a similar outcome–to use a hermetic mixture of text, image, and composition that is rooted in geographical and psychological space.

My recent work is characterized by free-flowing lines, giving it a sense of movement and balance. I also enjoy setting up a balance through the introduction of opposites. In my current work the opposites are two groups of acrylic paintings, both contain cropped images that are based on nature. The landform paintings focus on "the big picture" and are more of a macrocosm of nature. They show major movements in the land using formal elements, such as line, form, and color on a large scale. On the other side of the spectrum, the plant structure paintings are a microcosm of nature.

Growing up in culturally diverse New Orleans, I embraced at a very early age the decadence, pageantry, and exhibitionism of the city. I make images that explore the performance of identity and its various aspects, including sexuality, age, and gender.

Michelle Wasson’s paintings offer a sensual refuge from reality. Created intuitively from memory and imagination, layers of color and light portray surreal planes. Flowing between landscape, still life, and the figurative, Wasson’s canvases reflect our shared humanity in the natural world. In glowing scenes, divine vessels spring forth life and evoke Mother Nature’s power to create and destroy—and create yet again.

The Twins series was conceived in 2007 while working on a project with Redmoon Theater. I learned to gang cut my wood mosaics to provide a mirror image. The first mosaic took eight months to complete. I now have eleven sets completed. The subjects are chosen from models that pose for my Sunday life drawing class. The pieces are started as photographs which I take. They are made of natural woods triple glued to a plywood base. Hung from a cleat and stand about two inches from the wall. They are totally flat with only a slight curvature to the eyes.