ArtWalk artist Michelle Thomas of Hartford.
By Tricia Haggerty Wenz
Hartford artist Michelle Thomas will be the second featured artist of ArtWalk’s 2021-22 season and her exhibition, The Adornment Series: Images of Empowerment, opens Friday, Jan. 7, with a reception from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Below is an interview with Thomas ahead of the show where she discusses her background and how she approaches her art.
Tell me about your path to becoming an artist.
I’ve been an artist my entire life. I recall in kindergarten completing my work as fast as I could to have free time where I would go directly to the easel in the classroom. I can still see the newsprint paper and smell the red and purple tempera paint. From then on I would make space to create wherever I lived. At 16 with my very first paycheck, I purchased my first drawing table.
In the early days of your artistic journey, you joined the military.
You know, I can’t even recall how I came to the decision to join the military, but I can recall my decision to become a medic. The philosophy of that field resonated with me. When you are in battle and someone is injured, it is your duty to care for them, whether or not they are perceived to be the enemy. You take care of everyone; it is the best of humanity. After 13 years as a medic, I began working in public affairs which brought me back to my art. I was trained in graphic arts, photography and videography. All set the stage for my future career. I was able to see the world and retired after 21 years.
At the end of 2010 you retired and you embarked on an extraordinary journey.
The routines and regiment of military life were so ingrained in me I needed to somehow break free and find my creative voice once again. I needed to free my spirit and embrace fully my art once again. So, I began a year of silence. For all of 2011 I did not speak a word.
Wow.
During that year I was a mom of two young children and worked as an art teacher at a Montessori school. It was a year of self-discovery and understanding and connecting with humanity on such a deeper level. Language can be such a barrier to connecting with others, by removing speaking I was able to really see the people I was interacting with — to really focus solely on them. I developed a heightened sense of picking up body language and visual cues.
It was like a cleansing for me. At the end of the year, I was able to get back to the freedom of being. It was a pivotal, life-changing experience for me.
Tell me about this exhibition: The Adornment Series: Images of Empowerment
This is the fourth and final part of a series I have been working on titled Visually Re-Writing Re-Written History and the series is about my journey as a Black woman. Black identity has been torn apart and ripped to shreds. This series is about reclaiming that identity through my art.
Tell me more.
I spent so much time reading and trying to understand how slavery has affected Black Americans for centuries. I am struggling to understand how people can oppress others.
I found out recently through my dad that I am Nigerian. I thought about how much slavery and oppression took away from me and all of Black Americans. This final part of my series is all about reclaiming and celebrating who we are.
The faces in this work are captivating.
Each face informed the direction of the art. I started with a vision but as I got deeper into the work, I found the art led me in the direction it needed to go in. Although it is a series, I treated each piece as an individual and they became who they were destined to be.
What do you hope people take away from this exhibit?
I hope that everyone, and particularly Black women, walk away knowing that they are worthy, that their history matters, that they are enough. I hope they can have the strength to share their story, to rewrite their history. We all have that tape in our head of negative thoughts and stories. Change that and choose what you feed your soul with. I know now that I am grand, I am beautiful, and I can be anything I want to be. And I want to share that message with others.
How has creating this work changed you?
It many ways it has completed an important journey for me. Through rewriting my history, I have reclaimed my Nigerian roots. For my entire life butterflies have been an important symbol for me. The butterfly is what I use in my art logo. I recently discovered that Nigeria has the largest number of species of butterflies. Discovering this connection to my roots has been so beautiful and empowering to me.