Michelle Graves is currently an MFA student at Columbia College, Chicago in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Media program. She is secretary of her departments student organization, IMAGe Unit.
  Her work is based on ideas of self-identity combining scientific research and personal experiences into poetic, existential, text-based work.
   She resides in Chicago as freelance graphic/web designer and Photoshop retoucher. She is also assistant to Jason Salavon, new media artist.
   She is also a founding member, former Marketing Manager, and participating skater for the not-for-profit, Chicago Outfit Roller Derby League.

resume / c.v.

Artist Statement, 2011:
It is my goal in art making to organize my personal experiences in a poetic, scientific, and philosophical approach. In these methods, I create visual work that is based on my personal 'existential' theories that have been developing since 2003. I attempt to communicate to the audience an honest sense of my experiences and the process, or train of thought, within them. I believe that we all have a unique, individual, singular train of thought. From the day we are born, our bodies exist in the present moment. Within our bodies, the brain contains a train of thought that moves along a neurological path, engined by the individual's breath, heartbeat, and synapse. This is all contained in time. All external experiences that an individual goes through are framed by the physical senses and leave a trail along this neurological path in the brain. When a train of thought 'engine' runs along a path that is familiar, it associates or triggers emotions and memories that are brought back to the present moment and used in the individual's reaction to an experience. We, as humans, place subjective and objective value on experiences that highly influence reactive traits in present moments. Therefore an individual's essence is comprised of all experiences had by that individual, considering the experiential intensities. My ideological material comes from a few different areas of research. One is neurological research mainly focusing on the frontal and central lobes, specifically the Hippocampus portion of the brain, which processes memory and emotion. Connected with this is Alzheimer's disease that my Great-Grandfather died from and Grandmother is currently deteriorating from. Alzheimer's is a degenerative disease that begins by plaque build-up, disjoining the neuron's 'tau' in the Hippocampus. This disables emotional and memory triggered associations. (Although some memories are still somehow triggered in my Grandmother, which are cherished.) I also hyper-analyze my day-to-day experiences with a mental and physical self-awareness, as well as find inspiration from philosophers to mapping to graffiti artists. I am currently exploring the present moment in my text based, design aesthetic work. This is highly influenced by my Grandmother, who only exists in the present, and by existential philosophy that is based on individual presence. I challenge myself to maintain a full awareness of my thoughts in the present moment and translate them to paper. I do this as a performance in the style of what I call "Design Aesthetic Freestyle Writing." There are elements of fear and vulnerability during these performances but I utilize those thoughts, and the influence of my surrounding atmosphere, as material for my writing.