Michele Theberge

Artist Statement:

An installation could be some graceful slips of colored mylar on a window that let light pass through that speak of infinity, space and tangibility or it could be a project that takes up a whole room using found objects, paint and drawing to create a sense of spaciousness and openness.

Every morning, I start my day by drawing after my meditation. These two practices have become so intertwined that they influence each other indelibly. The immediacy of drawing helps me capture special moments – the touch of the brush on the paper, the ratio of water to pigment, the chance happening of each mark as it is made.

The drawings have been described as delicate navigations, tracing  energy moving through space resulting in images that are tender, mysterious, poignant.  Each mark represents a moment in time in a thread of mindfulness and presence. Even when they are figurative a tangible mystery remains. We don’t know where the figures are headed or what they are looking at or in connection with. 

There is a sense of quietness to my work. I have been so filled up by silence and spaciousness and peace, I like to share that with others.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Oakland-based artist Michele Théberge lived in three countries and eleven cities before settling in California. Known for their ability to capture the essence of the moment through the simplest of means, her drawings, paintings, installations and interactive projects have been exhibited and collected internationally. Her work has been exhibited at the Sakai City Cultural Gallery in Osaka, Japan, the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Folk Art, di Rosa museum in Napa, California, the Sonoma Museum of Visual Art in California, the Sharjah Museum of Art in the United Arab Emirates, the Fringe Gallery in Hong Kong and Pulliam-Deffenbaugh Gallery in Portland, Oregon. She has been a resident artist at the Morris Graves Foundation twice and currently is an affiliate artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito.

Educated at Tufts University (B.A.) and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (B.F.A) she also studied for one year at the Université de Strasbourg, France and was awarded her M.F.A. in 2004 by California College of the Arts in San Francisco.