
Michelle Marin Singing Heart
Embroidery, fabric and acrylic on linen canvas
16 x 12 inches
Presented by Spence Gallery
All of Michelle Marin’s works are hand embroidered with a variety of knitting yarns/embroidery threads and painted with acrylic. She stitches and paints on an easel and uses her watercolor sketches as guides. Marin states that her work is a very cathartic process, always beginning from a place of tension and ending when all the colors and materials “sing” in harmony.
Marin is part of a generation of artists that are honouring the past by reviving old materials and techniques and incorporating them in new ways. The materials used act as entry points for an intergener- ational audience. Polymer clay and fuse beads are very familiar to youth; yarn, fabric, embroidery and knitting techniques are familiar to an
older audience. The tactile quality of her mixed media pieces appeals to most and a range of viewers can relate to some element of the work.
Bio: Michelle Marin is a Costa Rica-born, Toronto-based emerging artist who creates portraits and thoughtful, intimate still life pieces. For her Bachelor of Fine Arts, she specialized in fiber arts, sparking her initial interest in embroidery. Following her degree, she studied gerontology. While working in long-term care homes after her formal education, her two worlds would converge. It was here that she came to realize the familiar language of embroidery for people from all walks of life. With formal training in material art, design, and drawing, she began to blend andintroduce embroidery into her painting using thread and yarn on linen canvas. She started exhibiting around 10 years ago and has accelerated over the past three years. In these early stages of her artistic career Marin’s unique work and process have already caught the attention of art show jurors; she has received special mentions and awarded highly competitive artist grants.