Artist Biography

Michelle found painting at age 32 after having a dream she was an artist. At some point, she took a chance and shared her work on social media and found that her work sold. With tiny humans at home, she sold mostly to family and friends. In time, she began showing her work at the occasional festival, hanging pieces in local businesses and staging homes for sale. In recent years, she has found herself coming full circle selling her artwork at the Main Street Gallery to the same Park City ski community she used to work for in her marketing career.

Texture and landscapes have interested Michelle from the beginning. She has great affection for the rejuvenation of the outdoors and loves bringing it into people’s homes. Without texture, she feels like she's outside the landscape looking in, still desiring to be there. However, the thicker the texture became in Michelle's artwork, the more she felt she was standing in the landscape itself. To this day, she still feels the best compliment is to watch collectors and customers reach up to touch the texture of her artwork.

In 2020, Michelle created a community art project called The Hand-print Project to raise awareness for social issues. By painting hands – the hand being a symbol of hard work, helping others and our personal commitment- and pressing it to a canvas, this project has created a unity among community members who participate to be healers and helpers. This project gained local publicity in radio and print.

Ten years on, she now paints full time while balancing motherhood. She has been honored to have a couple articles written by Voyage Utah Magazine about her artwork and journey. Her first solo exhibition was in 2024 and regularly has her work hanging in businesses all around Utah. Michelle's artwork has placed and received honorable mentions, found a gallery home, and enjoys meeting wonderful people at art festivals throughout the Northwest. She also regularly hold paint nights in her home in Lehi, Utah. 

 

Artist Statement

My name is Michelle Volz and I am a sometimes contemporary, sometimes impressionist landscape artist and texture junkie. I’ve loved expression through art for as long as I can remember. Painting wasn’t an interest when I was young. Music was my outlet. It gave voice to feelings I could not express in words. Years later, I had a vivid dream I was an artist. I woke up understanding how this medium could be a voice for me, one that couldn’t be tapped through music.

Our connection to the natural world is raw and innate. Recreating nature’s landscapes felt like the instinctive path forward. I particularly felt drawn to give rich texture to my work as it creates a sense of reality around the painting where it’s no longer a painting, it’s the grove of trees I hike in the fall. It’s the mountain behind my house. It’s the apple orchard we picnicked under that one time. That connection with artwork is what I desired to give my collectors in their spaces, an escape to a natural Narnia of their choice.

When I began The Hand-print Project, the art of expression took on new meaning as I looked for a way to speak to the social issues weighing on my heart.  Painting my hand as a symbol of personal commitment felt like a perfect way to marry my person with the painting. Opening this project to the public was a way for myself and my community to feel unity in trying to educate ourselves out racial issues, unity to create a safe space for our LGBTQIA friends, unity to support our veterans. The project continues to grow.

The why in my art is about people. The creating of these pieces gives me the ability to express that speechless voice and give part of my soul over to it. That soul and expression stays with the painting like a horcrux when I transfer my work to new collectors, whether it’s just for them and their escape, or for a uniting purpose.