Michelle Carter
MFA ’09 Fine Arts 2D
I often explore relationships between spontaneous marks and organizing structures. Though non-representational, my current drawings and paintings are informed by twenty-five years of plein air landscape painting. Many of the themes that I’ve previously investigated are still at play, like gesture, spatial illusion, and ambiguity between figure and ground.
In my daily drawing practice, strict consistency is a framework for improvisation. Each day, without reference to previous days, I make a 5.5” by 4.5” mixed-media drawing. I combine humble found materials, like parking tickets and grocery packaging, with wet and dry media. I usually work for at least ninety minutes. Now in my fifth year of this practice, my growing collection of over fifteen hundred drawings is stored sequentially, like a visual diary. Though the practice feels quite fruitful over time, I find that only a small portion of drawings (less than ten percent) stand on their own as complete works that sustain my attention.
“3/1/26” and “8/29/24” are two daily drawings that currently serve as studies for large oil paintings in my studio. As I spend weeks and months with the paintings, I build relationships with the imagery guiding them; I develop loose narratives that are significant to me but not necessarily important for others to know. In my mind, “3/1/26” relates to a child’s perspective of a mother. I associate “8/29/24” with characters who are having late-night adventures..
Michelle Carter is a painter with a studio in Charlestown, MA. She is Associate Professor of Art & Design at Northern Essex Community College (Haverhill and Lawrence), where she teaches drawing and art history and chairs the program. Michelle is also a Faculty Director for the Graduate Commons Program at Harvard University, which involves community-building events. Before her Massart MFA, Michelle earned a BA in History from Vassar College and a post-bacc from Brandeis University. Michelle lives in Cambridge with her partner and son.
