Welcome, and thank you for your interest in my work.
From my earliest memories, art has been a way for me to make sense of the world. I began figure drawing classes as a child, and it was a formative experience that didn’t just teach me technique, but showed me a space where I truly belonged. Painting, for me, is a space where I can feel free.
Over the years, my practice has evolved across many mediums — graphic design, print, illustration, and oil painting — all which have informed my approach. I am always captivated by the process of uncovering the “why”— understanding the soul behind an idea, a brand, a person. That experience shapes my approach to painting: design brings structure, color and paint gives me freedom of expression, and my art becomes a conversation between emotion and form.
I’m endlessly fascinated by human expression, gestures, body language, and the subtle energy we project. My figures are present and engage you to be present with them. They have a job to do — to confront, console, represent and recognize our shared humanity. My work explores the tension between what is revealed and what remains hidden, and how we shape, and are shaped by our environments. I’m drawn to our dualities: presence and absence, vulnerability and strength, order and the beautiful messiness.
Art has been the true North Star of my life, but the power of art is for everyone. Living with original, handmade art is one of the most meaningful ways we can connect to our surroundings, ourselves and eachother.
Michelle Carnes, MFA | Fine artist, visual designer
"Michelle’s work is a celebratory excavation of identity, emotion, and presence — grounded in bold self-expression and an unflinching female perspective."
Drawing from her roots in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village and steeped in the cultural richness of Eastern European traditions, Michelle's paintings move beyond representation into a realm of intuitive insight — where color, texture, and gesture collide with emotion.
Trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from the age of 11, Michelle's technical command of figure and form serves as a launchpad, not a constraint. Her surfaces — oil on linen and wood — are layered, raw, and alive with motion. Paint flies. Color dances joyously untamed, and like the human experience — unapologetically messy. Yet in that chaos is clarity, celebrating the complexities of womanhood, selfhood, and human connection.
Michelle's work has been exhibited nationally in solo and group exhibitions, and featured on NBC News, at the Sundance Film Festival, South x Southwest, Google Intersection, and ChefDance. She has also created installations and public art for private and corporate collections. Michelle holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in Visual Communications from the Colorado Institute of Art. Her background in design and creative direction sharpens her understanding of composition and amplifies the emotional architecture of her paintings.
Now based in Northern California’s Bay Area, Michelle continues to evolve her practice — wielding brush and passion in a celebration of color, energy, and the magnificent human condition.