“My work is an exploration of the abstract, like dance gestures and the vibrations of color. Light, movement, nature, thoughts and new spirituality with scientific grounding are essential to my work. Since color is light, it is my first choice when I start my painting to connect instantly with the viewer. My knowledge about color comes from my experience in textile design knowing a small alteration of color tone can change the whole mood of a collection. Next comes a gesture, a sort of dance, an impulse, an expression of energy. I believe that this is ultimately the energy you read in a painting, the force or, on the contrary, the softness of the brushstroke that captures your attention. My background of studying architecture made me also a constructor. Layer by layer the painting grows, refining what you can barely see, accentuating, canceling, for in the end, I want the viewer to feel intrigued by what they see without necessarily understanding it. I like the element of mystery, because that’s what life is, mysterious. So I play a lot with transparency. I have a fascination in things I do not completely apprehend, things that are strange, which are disguises perhaps and might resemble something you know very well. And that’s exactly why I paint abstract. Like Gorky said, “Abstraction allows men to see with his mind what he cannot physically see with his eyes.“ The element of not knowing, rather than becoming an unwanted obstacle, can open up to wider, unforeseen possibilities. Gorky also said, ”Abstract art enables the artist to perceive beyond the tangible.” And that’s my mission, to make the viewer feel, to pull him into the canvas with colors and let his emotions take over, to re-interrupt his daily routine, to lead him to see something he knows in a different way, and discover by transmitting power through color and gesture, allowing the observer to find a new way of accessing the beauty and wonder of the world and emancipate his mind and explore the unknown. In my work I am filtering what interest me, so the paintings become a reflection of reality, my thoughts and hopes distilled through my experiences in life, into abstraction.” Michelle Hold
