About the Artist
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MICHELE NORMAN is a contemporary realist artist.
Born in Houston, Tx. and raised in El Salvador, she has a strong understanding of the common ground between cultural backgrounds.
Reflecting her passion in her paintings, Michele has always been fascinated with detail and beauty, which are the tools she uses to find meaning in every aspect of life.
War was part of her life in El Salvador. After studying two years of Graphic Arts at José Matías Delgado University, she had to move to Mexico City where she received a BFA in Graphic Design, at Universidad Nuevo Mundo.
Michele continued her art and painting studies as a self taught artist, working in watercolor with Professor Juan Antonio Madrid, who became her critic, mentor, and great friend. She became an illustrator, working in watercolors for children’s books and portraits. In 2003, she embraced her oil technique and painted “mourning”, painting that changed her life and inspired her to pursue a “giving life as an artist”.
After living in Mexico City for 17 years, Michele moved with her husband Alvaro and their three children to Geneva IL. . Here, she enjoyed the perfect studio space where she developed her work and found her voice as an artist. Now, she lives and works in Bentonville, AR. still discovering new endeivours and enjoying the proximity to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Her paintings can be found in private collections in Portugal, Netherlands, Spain, Luxembourg, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, United States, and Canada.
/ARTIST STATEMENT
I paint simple instants of life, in all their richness and detail. I create timeless scenes in a serene atmosphere of silence, where light, space, and texture reveal emotions and memories.
I can't avoid seeing a beam of hope in the beauty found among simple things, which brings strength in the midst of suffering ... It might be because my childhood was filled with strong emotional images of war and love, and made my imagination wander between drama, sadness, hope, and beauty. From those experiences, I learned that beauty is hope.
I have a strong belief in humanity. It is the substance that I use to build the scenes and their narratives: People, objects and intimate spaces are transformed to become characters and landscapes in metaphors of life. I tell a story in my paintings, not only to be understood but to be felt.
The viewer is immersed in the scene, lost in the detail. I want to present something beautiful—an object of craft with intrinsic value—playing with a composition filled with fantasy and reality.
I am very interested in the experience, inviting the viewer to spend time in intimate observation, offering the opportunity for introspection and serene contemplation of complexity, in a fight against the loud emptiness of our time.
In the act of painting, I am balancing craft with the literary quality of my pieces. Through my art, I want to inspire an awakening towards the beauty and greatness of life.
/ EDUCATION
Graphic Arts at José Matías Delgado University, El Salvador.
BFA in Graphic Design at Universidad Nuevo Mundo, México City.
2025 GALERIA123, Group Exhibition. San Salvador, El Salvador
2019 10th Anniversary Show / Water Street Studios, Batavia, IL
2016 7th Anniversary show, Water Street Studios
2015 Next Gallery, St Charles IL
2013 SOLO SHOW, ¨Retrospective¨. Kane County Chronicle Gallery at WSS, Batavia, IL.
2013 Batavia Art in your Eye Poster Artist.
2013 Andrea Reynders juror, Next Gallery, ¨Temporal Belongings¨ St. Charles IL.
2012 show ¨ONSOMBEL¨, Water Street Studios. Batavia, IL.
2012 Batavia City Hall Exhibit.
