We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michelle Girardello a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Michelle, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
In my role as an artist assistant, I had the honor to assist Sheila Pepe last year on a public art crochet installation at Madison Square Park. To bring something this monumental, this soft, this queer, to the public space was so inspiring. Something I took from that space was the way Pepe brought the community together, encouraged everyone involved in the project to lean into what they were good at, play in that space. She brought together all kinds of folks from different backgrounds to crochet together, worked with the horticulture team and staff at the park to design an installation that would literally grow and change through the seasons. I remember during rainy install days I was teaching construction workers to crochet, it was an incredibley meaningful project to be part of. I’ve integrated concepts I learned about space making and community building into a class I designed called Crochet Cirlce that I currently teach to 4th graders, but I think it would be viable for any age. I’m considering offering this class to continuing education programs at art colleges in the city. Art has the power to bring people together, there’s something really special about making something with someone, through collaboration. We all need more of this magic in our lives, especially right now.
Michelle, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am a queer visual artist from Brooklyn, NY. I currenlty support my studio art practice with a mix of teaching, working in other artist’s studios, archival work, making portraits, photographing other people’s art, installing exhibitions, watching puppies, and doing random gig work. It’s a potion, and I’m still figuring out the recipe, but I’ve been able to design a life and a community that makes the risks worth it. I’m still working out the kinks in the design, learning, and reconstructing everyday. I’m at a transitional moment in my life, learning to build financial independence and stability after a divorce. Right now I’m starting to focus on all the things I have to offer and how I can package myself so that I’m doing more fulfilling work, spending my time in a valuable way, and not having to work as hard – that way I have more time to spend in the studio. Something that I’m starting to realize is that by this design, all the things I do, are connected, and in one way or another, are always supporting and informing my studio practice. Living more holistically.
My work in other artists’ studios (and homes, in many cases) is incredibly rewarding, I’m starting to view it all as an extension of my studio practice. Though the work looks different for every person, the common thread is archival work. Going through the life of someone’s practice, seeing the development of a person’s artwork with them is like learning about their history, getting to see the way they think, learning their language. It’s a privileged place I sit, and I handle it with care. My responsibilities ebb and flow with each artist, but some of the work I do includes designing and maintaining a website, assisting with their social media presence, constructing art storage space, creating an inventory of artwork, crocheting, sometimes just cutting paper, helping them apply to opportunities, and getting work ready to ship out. For others it’s helping them to part with old work and materials that don’t serve them anymore, to assist in creating a better space for them to create in now. To live in now.
Another part of my practice that I am growing is my photography business. I’ve photographed a number of different things from events, artwork documentation, artist’s portraits, business headshots, and candid portraits in the home. I love making photos of people in their spaces and homes. Whether it be an artist in their studio or family portraits created in the intimate setting of the home – I find joy in being able to capture people in the spaces they feel most comfortable, the spaces they made, have the photos reflect not only the person they are but the beautiful life they’ve built.
All the roles I play seep right into concepts I explore in my artwork about the creation of self and what a family and home are. In my photographs I create miniature domestic spaces and sculptures that are navigating their feelings, how to connect to one another, reckoning with past layers of themselves to build a future.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I left a full time position in education in my mid thirties to move to NYC and go to grad school. I spent almost a decade as the director of a photography program at a competitive arts based high school in Miami, FL. I started as a substitute teacher, then assisting in the art program, and after seeing how the photography program was struggling, I inquired about taking over, and in collaboration with the visual arts team, we built an award winning program. I wouldn’t trade that experience, that community, for anything in the world. Many of those people are still in my life, as friends, as colleagues, as family. I left that position to pursue my own practice. I think that was good for students to see too. I learned so much from my students, and I hope something they learned from me is to take the risk, to continue to believe in yourself, believe change and growth are possible. I received my MFA from the School of Visual Art in 2019 with an incredible community, a bigger family, and I’m still growing, we’re still growing.
Since graduating I’ve worked in administrative positions at a number of residency programs, done private portfolio development for high school students applying to art colleges, but I’m still figuring out how I want to pierce back into education, in what capacity. Right now I’m working with 4th and 5th grade students at an after school program in Manhattan, teaching classes I’ve designed about stopmotion photography, book making, and crochet. Crochet is one of those skills I taught myself in isolation, during the covid lockdown, and have integrated into my life and my practice in a number of ways.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
To help someone, whether it’s my students or my clients or viewers of my work, to see – to see the world around them, themselves, their power, offer another perspective, is an incredible journey to witness, to be part of.
It reminds me of my power. And of our super powers as artists.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.michellegirardello.com
- Instagram: @michellegirardello
