Artist Highlight

Michelle McDowell Smith is a Jacksonville, FL native, now living just south of the city in St. Johns, Florida. In the spring of 1997 she graduated summa cum laude from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) with a major in illustration and minor in art history. Her schooling instilled in her the importance of using symbols and metaphors in her work to create emotion, depth, and meaning. She also became skilled in the use of a wide variety of materials and mixed media techniques.

Michelle strives to create pieces that have a familiar narrative yet still convey a fresh look and allow for the unexpected. She uses acrylic paint, mixed media materials such as paper, hand made linoleum stamps, sewing patterns, maps, old letters, pages from books, and more.

Her current body of work is titled Of Land and Sky, Whimsical and Free. The work’s focus is centered in longstanding memories, fleeting ideas, and hope for the future.