Artist's Spotlight: Michelle Belto


Profile:

“My whole life has been about the absolute joy of creating art.” In my growing up I was surrounded by all things textile. My grandma was a seamstress who earned her living through creating perfect cloth cases for musical instruments or camping gear or widgets. My aunt, Sophie, made Shirley Temple dresses for me and my sisters with intricate details of buttons and lace. My great aunt, Cecilia, quilted huge downy spreads with tiny, even stitches and gave them to Church auctions where they fetched top prices. While I had the best teachers in the world, I never had the patience to ply needle and thread. My recent body of work, Grandma’s Sewing Box, is an homage to the art of my grandmother and aunts and all of the creative women in our history who didn’t have the luxury to paint or sculpt. They took the ordinary and necessary skills of farm life, raising these tasks to a fine art. I consider myself both a fiber artist and an encaustic artist, creating my canvases from my own hand-cast paper and then adding melted pigmented wax as a paint medium. The result is a highly textured artwork that has been described as “half-way between sculpture and painting.” Currently I am exploring ways to challenge the boundaries of fine art and fine craft by incorporating traditional encaustic techniques into my non-traditional fiber work. I often use an intuitive process to create the positive foam-core form that supports the paper. I like the fact that each canvas is unique, offering its own creative impetus. Using abaca fiber for strength and cotton fiber for its ability to hold impressions, I cast paper pulp onto the form. After drying and sealing the paper, I use heated pigmented and non-pigmented wax in multiple layers to create luminous canvases rich in texture. I have worked in hand made paper for the last fifteen years, coming from an earlier exploration in surface design on fabric. With encaustics I am finally able to use all of my mixed media experience in a way that is both personally satisfying and excitingly unique. In Grandma’s Sewing Box I have limited myself to 12” X 12” canvases, but my work has, over the years, become larger and more sculptural. I am working toward creating a total environment, using these cast forms as building blocks of space.



Member of Texas Wax Group:

San Antonio


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Michelle Belto


Bio

Michelle Belto is known for her richly textured images captured on her own cast paper canvases.  Often described as “mysterious and intriguing,” her newest body of work is a minimalist approach to color and subject.  Her canvases, however, are deeply textured with a rich warmth that can only be achieved through the organic quality of the pigmented beeswax she uses in her encaustic process.   

Michelle Belto considers herself both a fiber artist and an encaustic artist.  She creates her canvases, stabilized by an archival foam core center, from her own hand-made paper.  Using a mixture of cotton and abaca, she first creates a foam core positive and embeds it in paper pulp.   Sometimes additional texture and ideas are collographed during the pressing process.  When the work is dry, she uses pigmented wax along found objects  to complete the art.  The work is often displayed without framing, becoming what some call “wall sculpture.”  Ms. Belto ‘s work is often commissioned for specific spaces.

Michelle Belto lives in the Texas hill country with her husband and a menagerie of furry creatures.  She welcomes visitors to her studio and private gallery.  Contact the artist by telephone or e-mail:  210-393-9768    michelle@michellebelto.com .

 


Statement

“My whole life has been about the absolute joy of creating art.” In my growing up I was surrounded by all things textile. My grandma was a seamstress who earned her living through creating perfect cloth cases for musical instruments or camping gear or widgets. My aunt, Sophie, made Shirley Temple dresses for me and my sisters with intricate details of buttons and lace. My great aunt, Cecilia, quilted huge downy spreads with tiny, even stitches and gave them to Church auctions where they fetched top prices. While I had the best teachers in the world, I never had the patience to ply needle and thread. My recent body of work, Grandma’s Sewing Box, is an homage to the art of my grandmother and aunts and all of the creative women in our history who didn’t have the luxury to paint or sculpt. They took the ordinary and necessary skills of farm life, raising these tasks to a fine art. I consider myself both a fiber artist and an encaustic artist, creating my canvases from my own hand-cast paper and then adding melted pigmented wax as a paint medium. The result is a highly textured artwork that has been described as “half-way between sculpture and painting.” Currently I am exploring ways to challenge the boundaries of fine art and fine craft by incorporating traditional encaustic techniques into my non-traditional fiber work. I often use an intuitive process to create the positive foam-core form that supports the paper. I like the fact that each canvas is unique, offering its own creative impetus. Using abaca fiber for strength and cotton fiber for its ability to hold impressions, I cast paper pulp onto the form. After drying and sealing the paper, I use heated pigmented and non-pigmented wax in multiple layers to create luminous canvases rich in texture. I have worked in hand made paper for the last fifteen years, coming from an earlier exploration in surface design on fabric. With encaustics I am finally able to use all of my mixed media experience in a way that is both personally satisfying and excitingly unique. In Grandma’s Sewing Box I have limited myself to 12” X 12” canvases, but my work has, over the years, become larger and more sculptural. I am working toward creating a total environment, using these cast forms as building blocks of space.


Resume

Professional Experience

Educator  Private  Junior High and Secondary Schools  (Texas)                                     1973-1997

  • Teacher of Visual Arts, English, Theater Arts and Speech
  • Chair of Fine Arts  Departments  Various Schools
  • Co-chair Non-Public Schools Committee Texas Educational Theater Association
  • Founder and Chair Arts council for Non-Public Schools 1982-1984
  • Developed and implemented innovative curriculum
  • Created original scripts and choreography and visual design for student touring productions  Texas, New York, Europe
  • Directed extra-curricular, Visual Arts exhibits 

 

Consultant/Presenter                                                                                                       1985-2000

  • Visual Art Consultant: The Psychological Corporation, Oklahoma School Testing Program Visual Arts Test, US Academic Decathlon National Art Test Review (1997, 1998, 1999)
  • Organizational consultant in the area of organizational change, creative visioning
  • ·Featured presenter on topics of creativity, mental health and the role of arts in the healing process  National Expressive Therapy Association, National Catholic Educational Association and National Catholic Health Care System *See Addendum

 

Visual Artist  (Selected Exhibits)                                                                              1989-Present

2009 Degrees  M2 Gallery  Houston, Texas (Member Juried Traveling Show)

2008 Fused Expressions Bay 6 Gallery, Austin, Texas (Member Show)

2008 RX Art, Bihl Haus Arts, San Antonio. (Invitational. Catalogue)

2007 Labor of Love, Texas State Capitol. Texas Museum of Fiber Arts (Juried Show)

2007  Blue Star, Studio 120 No.2, San Antonio, Texas  (Solo Show)

2006-2008  New Braunfels Art League, New Braunfels, Texas (Members Juried Gallery)

2005-2007 Member’s Exhibit, RAC Gallery, San Antonio, Texas (Group Juried Show)

2004-2006  Airport Exhibit, San Antonio International Airport, San Antonio, Texas  (Group Juried Show)

2003 Studio 9 Collection, Blue Star Art Space, San Antonio, Texas. (Juried Group Show) Catalogue

2002  Ancient Arts, Pottery/Paper, Gallery in the Village, Bulverde, Texas. (Solo show/two artists)

2000 & 2004 All School Exhibition Russell Hill Rogers Gallery, Southwest School of Arts and Crafts,

San Antonio, Texas (Group Juried Exhibition)

1992  Easter Light, West Bend Gallery of Fine Arts, West Bend, IN. (Group Juried Exhibition.) Catalogue

1990 “Spirit into Matter, Victor Fisher Gallery, Oakland, California. (Group Juried Exhibition.)

1990 Poised Between Paradigms, Human Consciousness Gallery, John F. Kennedy University.

(Solo  Exhibition)  also  Loft Gallery, Center for Spirituality and Art, San Antonio, Texas. (Solo


Contact:

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Website: http://www.michellebelto.com

Email: michelle@michellebelto.com






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