MICHELLE ROBINSON

Jul 5

I grieve the losses, those that have already occurred and those still to come, resulting from humankind's impact on the

environment. In my work, I practice a form of activist melancholia. Mine is an anti-conciliatory mourning, intended less to

heal and more to spur action; to build empathy for non-human bodies and discourage complacency in the face of such

tragedies. In recent years, I have attended residencies in different ecosystems within the United States, studying how

our presence has endangered local plants and animals, encouraged invasive species, and created conditions for

catastrophic wildfires. The alteration of our landscape and climate has become overwhelming in its scope; impossible to

comprehend. To process what I learn, I focus on individual stories, creating an elegiac visual inventory of small losses

representing a greater whole. In response to the devastation, I embroider tender portraits of dead trees frozen in agonal

distress or vulnerable plants in the process of vanishing forever. I make grave rubbings of trees burned in fires or

destroyed by invasive insects. I hand-paint photographs to show what may disappear or document what has already

gone. These efforts force me to look, and not turn away from, the impact of numerous losses that may never be

reversed.

Michelle Robinson is a multi-disciplinary artist living in Los Angeles. She studied environmental design, animation, and

visualization at Texas A&M University, producing short films shown at the Walker Art Center, the Dallas Museum of Art,

and The AFI National Video Festival. She has been an artist and supervisor with Walt Disney Animation Studios for 31

years, most recently serving as Head of Characters on the Oscar-winning Encanto. Michelle completed her MFA in Visual

Art at the New Hampshire Institute of Art and exhibited her thesis work at the Sharon Arts Center in Peterborough, NH,

in 2019. Her work has been published in Fiber Art Now, Precog, Frames, and the book Desert Forest, produced by the

Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, CA. She has been awarded residencies with the Joshua Tree Center for

Photographic Arts, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, PLAYA, and Oak Spring Garden Foundation. She has juried shows

for the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art and Shoebox Projects and recently co-curated an exhibition about the Los

Angeles River for Shatto Gallery.

Membership Coordinator

LEIGH WISHNER