January/February 2020 Featured Artist:
Michelle Hayden
Michelle Hayden’s work has been exhibited across the United States in local, national and international exhibits. Photo by Kim Kobersmith
Michelle’s art emerges from a path of searching for meaning, speaking one’s truth, and seeking connection with others as she lives
in nature and home educates her sons. Her career as a social worker allowed her to witness the power of the human spirit to heal, an
ongoing integral thread enabling a bridge for shared understanding.
Michelle’s work has been exhibited across the United States in local, national and international exhibits. She was honored
to receive an International Emerging Artist Grant from the International Encaustic Artists, and was featured in both the
Encaustic Art Institute and International Encaustic Artists magazines, her sculpture chosen for both covers as well as for
that of multiple exhibition catalogs. Michelle’s sculpture resides in the permanent collection at the Museum of Encaustic
Art in Santa Fe, N.M., and is displayed in private collections across the United States. She is a juried member of the
Kentucky Arts Council’s Kentucky Crafted Program and the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen.
Artist’s statement:
Having always been captivated by the radiant qualities of nature, Michelle is compelled to create work rooted in soil that
empowers transformation. Her sculptures unfold from a foundation of looking beyond what is first seen, embodying evolution,
growth, and healing.
She created a technique that enables her to reconstruct the small bits found in nature through her lens into form which can be
seen, touched, and held. Through her unique process, Michelle transmits her macro-photographic imagery to textile, layers with
beeswax medium, cuts to shape, hand-carves, sculpts, colors and often sews together in order to release three-dimensional forms
that call out from their original surface, bringing them more fully alive.
They experience a metamorphosis into new beings that beckon deeper inquiry into their intricate detail, form, and relationship to
the whole. By integrating her love of ceramic, photography, drawing, and sculpting, Michelle creates work that invites gentle inner
reflection through the bridge of shared kinship and understanding offered through her sculpture, continuing her mission to
use art as a healing force.
Michelle Hayden
Richmond, Ky.
Phone: 859-353-7721
Email: michellehaydenart@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michellehaydenfineart/
Page last updated: March 10, 2020
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