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Currents of Life’s River
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: September - 2022
There’s a touch of the Divine and a dash of Miracle embedded within Michele Page Webster’s beguiling works.
Michele Page Webster’s artistic journey covers avast expanse, both internal and external. She’swalked among the wild ones; explored maternalCherokee roots; sifted, mixed, and painted with Holy Soilfrom El Santuario de Chimayo; delved deeply into Design(interior, landscape, event-planning); and, in the spirit ofWisdom, surrendered to the currents of Life’s River and itsunpredictable flow.It’s in the latter that movement, change, and growth immedi-ately rose to the river’s surface as Michele spoke about releasingher old reliable representational artistic style, replacing it with aloose, expressionistic, abstract freedom.Earlier this year her daughter was in a serious car accident.Recovery is slow – a thing that can’t be controlled. All one cando is slow down and take a day at a time.That approach spilled over into Michele’s painting.Representational painting is detailed and time-consuming.Abstract expressionism is spontaneous. You loosen your limbsand let your soul and heart flow through your body and out yourarm, hand, and brush. The splashes, broad strokes, dots, anddashes express feelings in ways meticulous detail cannot. Theresults are stirring and often contagious. While the artist mightbe expressing edginess, the viewer might see contentment.If you look at Michele’s work on pagetheartist.com, you cantrack her abstraction evolution. Explore the spirited horsesspringing up from clouds of energy as though Mother Earthis giving them birth. Compare the realism of the horses tothe softer, more impressionistic look of the pale tree trunks,“Aspen Splendor” set against a band of warm red backgroundand a hovering tree-top turquoise complement. Move one hugestep closer to abstract with “In the Beginning”, a dynamictake on the formation of the earth and firmament – or perhapssomething else entirely. That’s the joy of non-representationalwork. It will take you where you need to go whether you are theartist or the viewer.Michele laughs and says, “My Maltese puppy, Lola, just turned13. I started painting when she was a puppy. She’s carried mefrom representational to abstract. She’s quite the Muse.”You never know where your spirit guide might be and whereyour river might take you.Michele says, “All you can do is breathe and go with the flow.”Contact Michele at[email protected].See her work onFacebook and Instagram or call her at (850) 322-7660.
by Donna Rhodes
