Michelle Tholen’s work is on display at Mc Evoy’s Gallery in San Francisco, through May 31st.

Tholen’s inspiration is drawn from the landscapes in Northern California. The sustenance of stunning mist-laden rivers, lakes, and waterways infused with the atmosphere and with a sense of tranquility. Searching for what she loves and trying to capture its essence by showing how interesting that moment is. In pursuit of the abstract, the timeless and transcendently rational, the work speaks to the cultural complexity. Hopeful in feeling, they suggest real and imagined, material and ethereal, familiar and foreign places.

“During a difficult time in my life, I experienced a moment in nature that brought me the greatest joy. I understood that life was a mirrored reflection of nature’s ups and downs and that without darkness there could be no light. One existed because of the other. Both bound together. “Evocative of the mysterious and fragile in nature, not of existing places but of imaginary realms discovered in the heart and mind. Underpinned by an emotional sense of certainty. Reinventable spaces explored by themes of memory in relation to nature. Conceivable scenery allowing the viewer to escape into an uninhabiting, quieting, meditative, and idealized seduction of collective solitude.The artist creates a lure of light in color suggesting more than color and light found in the spiritual that illumines, fills, and enlivens. The feeling of promise yet realized within one’s imagination outside of reality into the spiritual and contemporary mind of innovative and artistic expression. Executed in finesse appealing to mood and emotions later the intellect. Close to the artist’s heart is the survival and love of our environment manifested in work that creates beauty and magic. The expression of hope and belief in an overriding force greater than the artist’s own insignificance.