Michelle Eccles MFA Graduating Artist 2017

But it is Really Dreamy, Oil on canvas, 4’x4′, 2017

Beauty and the Bean Bun Boy, Oil on canvas, 4′ x 4′, 2017

Artist Statement

I paint figures that inhabit enigmatic spaces that are the product of intermingling cultures and hyperreality. My characters include friends and loved ones, but more notably, the intriguing and complicated personalities I met during the nine years I lived in Japan. My paintings are a complex combination of social media images, pop culture references, Japanese aesthetics, and Western painting. These composite spaces allow me the opportunity to further explore and critique my experiences abroad while enabling me the renegotiation of my fluctuating identity. My work reflects what it is to be a citizen of the world: to simultaneously have no home and many.