Michelle Karpus - 2025
Michelle is an animal portrait artist, and particularly enjoys painting dogs and cats. Each animal is as unique as any human, but their emotions manifest in a much simpler way. They reflect the love she has for animals. In this process of creativity, she finds herself being drawn to how animals can portray human feelings, which can create an emotional connection between the animals and their viewers. Just like humans, animals can allow the viewer a deeper insight into their identity. Just by a stroke of the brush or a twinkle in the eye, they tell us whether they are happy or sad by putting their vulnerability on display.
Michelle mostly uses acrylic on paper, and she work with a consistently quality layer of paint. Colour is important to her, and she loves how looking at an animal can unlock precious jewels of colours. A black dog is not just black, it may have some dark purple or blue, and many different shades of grey.
Michelle has also created some emotion cards to try and help people to identify their emotions. These can be anyone from children to adults, to people with learning difficulties. She hope to combine my lived experience of mental health challenges and her skills as an animal artist to help people who lack the words to describe their feelings. She envisions that the images of animals mirroring human emotions, and the use of colour will create an alternative use of therapeutic tools.