Michaela was born in northern Minnesota where she grew up building snow forts and drawing with her brother--he specialized in dinosaurs, she covered everything else. In 2000, she graduated from the University of Minnesota with her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. After a brief return to Brainerd, MN, she came back to Minneapolis and quickly acclimated to the art community there. She remained in Minneapolis until life recently brought her to the Pacific Northwest.
here," she says, "If it's raining, then it's too warm to be snowing... and if it's too warm to be snowing, then I shouldn't have to worry about frost bite. Seriously, I still call home and rub it in whenever I get the chance." STATEMENT My work is born from the mind wanderings surrounding events both experienced and borrowed. Occasionally fictitious and often embellished, I explore moments where emotion is so strong that the recollections of actual events becomes clouded. When an attempt to reconstruct the event fails, a simple emotion is what is left behind. I use personal icons and collective pop culture images to create associations. The investigation of color, texture, and interaction between various mediums, with both appropriated and original images, provides the backdrop to the concept.
art itself reflects the artist in both intense and mundane moments, balancing the planned and unplanned, and ultimately resulting in the feeling that the viewer is experiencing a still shot of a different life. Whether allowing the viewer literal or dream-like glimpses into another's life, I create the opportunity for the viewer to feel connected to the artwork and to myself. If the viewer feels as though they can read the story of the painting, the work can be appreciated within the context of the viewer's own personal story, instead of the viewer trying to understand the meaning of the artwork through my eyes. That personal relationship between the viewer and the work is the experience I strive to create. |

| © Michaela Poepping. All Rights Reserved. |
2000 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Drawing & Painting University of Minnesota, Twin Cities SELECT RECENT EXHIBITIONS
Celebrating the Collaboration of Media Group Exhibtion September 30-October 31, 2009 Sixth Street Gallery Vancouver, WA www.sixthstreetgallery.com $99 Art Sale Group Fundraising Exhbition September 19-20, 2008 The Soap Factory Minneapolis, MN soapfactory.org Cocoons Solo Exhibition July 27 - August 29, 2008 Evelyn Matthies' Porthole Gallery Brainerd, MN 2nd Annual Juried Exhibition Group Exhibition May-September 2008 St Cloud State University St Cloud, MN Summer Salute to the Arts Exhibition Group Exhibition June 2008 Franklin Arts Center, Q Gallery Brainerd, MN www.crossingarts.org Winter Salute to the Arts Exhibition Group Exhibition December 2007 Franklin Arts Center, Q Gallery Brainerd, MN www.crossingarts.org PRIVATE COLLECTIONS Private collectors residing in: New York, California, Germany, Japan, Oregon, Maryland, Minnesota & Wisconsin |
| Vernal Equinox by Michaela Poepping Acrylic Mixed Media 40"h x 30"w |