Biography

Michelle Volz is a contemporary acrylic landscape artist and texture junkie. She grew up a musician but found painting at age 32. Her art quickly attracted an audience, and she began selling and receiving regular commissions She has since shown her work at art shows and festivals, and has staged her pieces at local restaurants, businesses, and homes for sale. She was recently featured in Voyage Utah Magazine in their “Rising Stars” article. 

She takes landscape inspiration from her love of the natural world. She sculpts the tangible textures and vibrant colors of her collector’s favorite nature spots using palette knives, brushes, sponges, and texture mediums creating a space of wonder and comfort in their homes. She considers it the highest compliment when a collector reaches out to feel the texture of her pieces. One of her autumn aspen tree paintings recently received a 2^nd place award in the acrylics/oils category from the Sandy City Arts Council.

In 2020, Michelle created a community art project called The Hand-print Project to raise awareness for social issues. By painting hands – the hand being a symbol of hard work, helping others and our personal commitment- and pressing it to a canvas, this project has created a unity among community members who participate to be healers and helpers. This project gained local publicity in radio and print.

Michelle is currently creating a paint night program to share the joy of art and teach painting fundamentals to adults and children in her area, including her two daughters who are budding artists. Michelle is constantly giving herself to her creativity, as her niece says, like a girl boss.

Artist Statement

I’ve loved expression through art for as long as I can remember. Painting wasn’t an interest when I was young. Music was my outlet. It gave voice to feelings I could not express in words. Years later, I had a vivid dream I was an artist. I woke up understanding how this medium could be a voice for me, one that couldn’t be tapped through music.

Our connection to the natural world is raw and innate. Recreating nature’s landscapes felt like the instinctive path forward. I particularly felt drawn to give rich texture to my work as it creates a sense of reality around the painting where it’s no longer a painting, it’s the grove of trees I hike in the fall. It’s the mountain behind my house. It’s the apple orchard we picnicked under that one time. That connection with artwork is what I desired to give my collectors in their spaces, an escape to a natural Narnia of their choice.

When I began The Hand-print Project, the art of expression took on new meaning as I looked for a way to speak to the social issues weighing on my heart.  Painting my hand as a symbol of personal commitment felt like a perfect way to marry my person with the painting. Opening this project to the public was a way for myself and my community to feel unity in trying to educate ourselves out racial issues, unity to create a safe space for our LGBTQIA friends, unity to support our veterans. The project continues to grow.

The why in my art is about people. The creating of these pieces gives me the ability to express that speechless voice and give part of my soul over to it. That soul and expression stays with the painting like a horcrux when I transfer my work to new collectors, whether it’s just for them and their escape, or for a uniting purpose.