Michelle Carmen Gomez

Michelle Carmen Gomez

Blue World, acrylic and silkscreens on canvas, 38"x47"

Veins in Blue, acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, 30"x40"

Song In Blue, acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, 36"x48"

World in Red, acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, 36"x48"

Cross World, acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, 36"x48"

Please Don't,acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, 36"x48"

Free Parking, acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, 30"x40"

Back Sides, acrylic and silkscreens on canvas, 30"x46"

“I’ve taken photographs since I was a young girl. I think I always knew that my life would revolve around my art. The specific medium was harder to determine. I studied journalism and literature at the University of Texas at Austin but, after working as an on-air reporter at a local television station, I realized that I needed to get back on track. I moved to Los Angeles in 1992 and started working in the movie business, but continued to take photographs and sell them. Friends and colleagues encouraged me to take my photos to a gallery and that was the beginning of my artistic journey. I sold prints for years through two separate galleries, but knew I wanted to explore other mediums. I wanted to get my hands dirty, literally. Once I began silkscreening my images on canvas and doing freehand brushwork, the process thrilled me. The notion that any one of my photographs that connects with a viewer can translate to a work on canvas is expansive and inspiring to me. Most recently I’ve been asked to do family portraits on canvas, in the same vein as my graphic work. I take the portraits, experiment with composition, blend colors, and change screens until I see where the pieces should fit and where the emphasis should be. My paintings heighten the emblematic components in my photographs, by pulling out the mythological associations in the images. I think it’s my literary background that informs my work on canvas, I see the people and events that represent themes, accent archetypes, and are tinged with my hopeful optimism. I frame my photographs with this ideology. I guess it makes sense that the people that appreciate my work are drawn to the more prominent symbols in my images. Each word, each image, has a profound meaning to me and, when brought together on a single canvas, intensifies and expands its solitary significance. Art can be mysterious, evocative; I strive to achieve this in my work, achieve a magical essence. My aim is to create work that people can revisit and rediscover, work that fuses itself to the viewer. Art should serve the psyche in the same way that music serves the listener.”

Biography & Exhibition History

Like many who grew up in rural America, with its wide open spaces and unhurried pace, notable photographer and artist Michelle Carmen Gomez is intrigued by places that still show signs of the vernacular past. She is infinitely fascinated by the profundity of ordinary moments. From her SMALLTOWN, AMERICA SERIES, shot in her hometown Pleasanton, Texas, to her current project THE RED AND THE BLUE, which chronicles the developing Los Angeles subway system of the Red and Blue Line routes that connect the city and are slowly changing the landscape of a once logistically fractured, almost detached county, Gomez’s photographs capture the essence of a subject, location or study and accentuate the emblematic nature of our day to day. Her art, a kinetic blend of her serigraphs and freehand brushwork using vibrant acrylics on canvas, juxtaposes her classic photographic images against a more pop medium. Critics have commented that Michelle’s work is, “Warhol, without the cynicism.” Gomez believes that art is essential to life and that intent infuses images in the same way that authenticity infuses the soul. “My first impressions of a location, subject, or event dictate the way in which an image materializes,” says Gomez. “It’s part technical and part serendipitous, as is my work on canvas. I go to a city, get lost, observe, trust my impressions, and shoot images that represent what I construe as quintessential moments.” Her work has a narrative quality, seamlessly unifying formality and spontaneity, structure and fluidity; she is an artist whose method is systematic, faithful, unassuming and timeless. Gomez believes, “An artists style is an amalgam. Each year something is lost and found, then one day you look at your work and see a common thread.” Her photographs are intimate, unpredictable, muted and ironic, mimicking the manner in which we often see the world, while the editorial quality of her work creates a unique sense of familiarity. Gomez has ongoing exhibits in Los Angeles and Miami and her larger photographs, printed on aluminum and mounted on custom 48x64 birch frames, have become a signature style. A native Texan, Gomez earned her Bachelors degree in Journalism and Film from the University of Texas at Austin and has worked professionally as a fine art photographer, artist, film director, writer, and actor. Collectors of Gomez’s photography include celebrities, corporations, private collectors and professional athletes. For video, bio, representation, news, featured galleries, clothing line information or inquiries regarding commissioning work, check out her official website WWW.ABOUTMICHELLE.COM or e-mail to FINEARTSCREENS@YAHOO.COM

M i c h e l l e C a r m e n G o m e z

Fine Art Photographer and Artist

Born San Antonio, TX 1969

Received Bachelors Degree in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin

Selected Solo Exhibitions:

2008 LA Beautification Team sponsored art Show
ART AND THE CITY: L.A ICONS Los Angeles, CA

Left Coast Gallery Studio City, CA

Applegate Gallery Venice, CA

Global Fusion Art New York City, NY
2007 Left Coast Gallery Studio City, CA

2006 Lurie Fine Art Gallery, Miami Beach, FL

2005 Malibu and Newport Beach Shows
Hancock Park Los Angeles, CA
2004 NoHO Arts Festival North Hollywood, CA
SoHo Gallery, Studio City, CA

Selected Private Collections:

John Debney, Burbank, CA

David Caruso, Los Angeles, CA

John Dykstra, Sherman Oaks, CA

Mark Alan Brown, Studio City,CA

Pete Rose, Sherman oaks, CA

Heather and Mark Rice Los Angeles,CA

Numerous Private Collectors

818. 760. 7010 Phone

310. 463. 3683 Phone

917. 698. 2551 Phone