About the artist
I am artist Stephanie Michaud living and working in Cottage Grove, with my family of husband of almost 30 years and my 2 sons (one on the spectrum) MN, whose preferred mediums are pastel (both soft and oil), and clay.
Almost since birth, I’ve always been creating. My parents told me that all they needed to give me was paper and crayons and I was happy for hours. To this day, that really hasn’t changed. It’s almost kismet that I started in crayons and ended up in similar media where I am now after spending a bit over a decade in graphic design after graduating from the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1992.
If I’m not creating, I’m filled with anxiety and sadness. Creating also, has been a way to combat a lifetime of severe depressive disorder. It’s also why my subject matter is always serene, always animals that I find the most honest and pure creatures. Their purity in purpose, living in the moment without malice has always been a draw to me. I want my work to make others smile and laugh. I often stylize the creatures to accentuate my favorite things about them. My intent is not to photographically represent them, but offer them to the viewer, in ways that simply can’t be captured my a camera or naked eye. I like to be playful, but with a serious, non-cartoonish approach. Colors will ALWAYS be bright. I’m attracted to rich and vibrant color and find myself a slave to it always.
I’m still discovering who and what I am as an artist. Perhaps that’s just how I’ll always be because I get bored doing the same things over and over. Repetition isn’t my bag. I’m always working on doing new things, exploring new avenues of creativity. Right now, I really enjoy the immediacy of doing pastel paintings, but I still love doing animal sculptures.