I was born into a family that celebrates creativity as an essential part of being. There was never any question that we would be musicians like our father. Maybe that’s why when I think about creativity it has a sound and presence; it’s a constant hum and vibration sitting just below my skin that crescendoes into a lightness and singing melody when I put brush to paper. That energy isn’t mine alone, it’s there for everyone. I’m truly blessed to be able to feel that energy every day.
Over the years the work I’ve chosen has often had a creative element. From costume design to architectural drafting, from baking to guiding bike tours and from small town life in central Minnesota to small village life in Tuscany, I’ve been on a mission to unleash my creativity in as many ways and as many places as possible.
My art is an expression of that journey and my hope is that these works communicate the joy of creation and inspire others to tap into that same creative energy themselves. When I’m not creating myself I’m helping others find their creative voice and the courage to make that voice sing.
Don’t take my word for it
“If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced”
Vincent Van Gogh
“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.”
Georgia O’Keeffe
“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not’?”
George Bernard Shaw
“The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.”
Robert Henri
Michele Karlsson Art 