Stevens the Sur-Realist
In Conversation with Illustrator and Fine Artist Michelle Stevens
Self-Portrait, 2019
Stevens’ Self-Portrait, 2021
When I met Michelle Stevens at just about 14 years old, I knew that I was making a lifelong friend. Her curiosity and vivacious energy is something that has permeated our friendship over the last 10 years and has truly never wavered. Her talent is unmatched and her art speaks for itself, causing viewers to think, ponder, and wonder, while making its way to numerous contests and galleries over the years.
I used to see her hanging out in the art classrooms in high school after the bell rang, finishing up drawings and paintings, editing photos in her film class, and putting final touches on pottery for her ceramics class. One time she made me a little coil pot for the holidays. I used to pose for her reference shots and sometimes still do. Her endless creativity and experimentation with new materials like scratch and sketch paper and multi-colored pencils always inspired me to be unafraid of new ways of thinking. There was never any doubt in my mind that she would be a successful artist one day. It seemed to run in her veins.
And here we are, 10 years later, chatting with each other over the phone during the middle of a worldwide pandemic to talk about the way she sees the world, how her art has shifted and changed over the years, and the unexpected world circumstances. What better way to start interviewing artists and makers than to start with my nearest and dearest. Might I introduce you to the wildly talented and highly skilled illustrator and fine artist, Michelle Stevens.
Ex-Husband, 2019
Upon answering my phone call for our interview, illustrator and fine artist Michelle Stevens was busy leveling up on her BTS World Tour phone game, taking some much needed time away from day to day life to relax and escape from the dread of social media by virtually managing the band BTS on their hypothetical world tour all from the comfort of her own home.
Tide Pool, 2020
Stevens, a 2019 graduate of Massachusetts College of Art and Design—dubbed MassArt by its students and Boston locals—with a BFA in Illustration and a Sustainability minor, has worked to create a career full of realistic imagery that delves into the surreal and fantastic. Her work is mostly concentrated in graphite with the occasional painting thrown in for good measure (when she feels like switching things up from her usual medium.) Stevens has always wanted to be an artist, something very few people can say. She never imagined doing anything else with her life. It seems as though it was always in the cards for her, having established a love for art early on in life. As I began to pick her brain, I said, “One of the biggest questions that I had for you was, what made you want to become an artist? what drew you to art as a career path?”
“it's hit me at different phases, or should I say stages in my life. It kind of unraveled, but it's always been something that's been a big part of my life,” she said. “when I was little, one of my strongest memories about loving art was looking at my mom's portfolio from twenty years prior or however long...She was a sign painter, but then sign painting kinda got canceled out by digital printing and all that. She has some stuff that's really cool to look at. she had a portfolio because she went to the, now defunct, Butera School of Art, which was kind of near the Commons actually, in Boston. I think she only went for like a year or two. [Stevens’ mother received a certificate in sign painting from Butera.] But she had a portfolio of model studies and portraits from that. and I remember seeing that as a kid and the portraits and I was like, "Oh my god. Like that's so cool. I want to do that." So I used to think it was the most insane thing and then eventually I surpassed that with my skills and I was so proud of that—As a teenager. And I was like, "Wow." I'm pretty amazed that as a kid, I was looking at this stuff and was like, "That's insane, being able to do that," and then growing up and getting to that point and surpassing that, and I was like, "Wow, okay."
Pandemic Self Portrait, 2021
Stevens described herself as having an “obsessive” personality. Always wanting to perfect and master her skills whether that’s in the form of a dance routine that she’s learning, working with oil paints, or even learning to cook during quarantine, she takes her time to refine her talents, hankering in on the details and aiming for excellence. At age 14, Stevens’ realized that though she had many interests, art was, she explains, “the only thing I was ever exceptionally good at for most of my life. I was decent at a lot of things. I liked English and I liked writing and stuff, but it wasn't something I felt as extraordinary at. I don't know, art was always the thing that I was like, "Okay, I have something here."
In regards to forming her style and streamlining her skills, Stevens began, “Yeah, I guess when I was a teenager, I remember—it's crazy to think, I'm sure—I'm turning 24 this year. You're already 24, wow. But also, that means that 10 years ago, we were 14 and when I was 14, I feel like that was the age when I really honed in on getting obsessive about making my drawings skills what I wanted them to be. So, that's the year that I feel like I started drawing all the time and a lot of them were copying photos of bands that I liked. I really was inspired by photography and looking through magazines and photography books and stuff like that. It wasn't really a lot of conceptual stuff at that time, which is how a lot of people start out, so it was a lot of copying photos, practicing portraits, and learning that way. Before that, I was into cartoons and making my own world with that, but then it turned into portraiture and more…a little bit more toward realism. And, yeah. Eventually, it kept going with portraiture, but then it became...obviously, as you mature, incorporating your own narratives or concepts into there.”
Trickster Figure - Waves (After Jung) Series, 2018
At the encouragement and instruction of her high school art teacher, Mr. John Nikas-Hayes, Stevens fine-tuned her skills, sent work into and received awards from the Scholastic Art Awards, and also officially decided to pursue art in college. This was the first time in her life that a teacher had taken a special interest in her skills and decided to mentor her, which reinforced her confidence in her fine art and illustration skills. It was no surprise that she ultimately picked MassArt as her place of study, having been the alma mater of Nikas-Hayes as well as being a stone’s throw from her parents’ home. And as a bonus, it’s a state school (the last public art college in the United States) that was more cost-effective than Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Pratt Institute, both of which were also contenders.
Upon arriving at MassArt, Stevens needed to decide where she’d like to pursue her talents and collect her degree. Though many choose to study fine art, Stevens opted to embark on a degree focusing on illustration due to its malleable ability to fluctuate between the narrative and the abstract. The thing about illustration that truly fuels Stevens’ passion is its inherent link to storytelling and connection. The ‘structure of having a clear direction,’ makes more sense to her in terms of her career path, but she also loves the idea of being able to pursue more abstract projects on the side, “Cause we had a lot of discussions in school about where fine arts and illustration cross over and they can be the same thing, but usually, illustration is doing…making a visual that accompanies a story or an idea whereas painting and fine art can be more abstract and...I don't know…I feel like I like art to have a real story behind it.”
Still Life Study, 2018
That begs the question: Does Stevens’ work have any particular message or meaning behind it? “Overall, I feel like my art always is inspired by and comes back to human connection in a lot of ways. But, I don't know about general messages all the time other than, at least for me, doing portraits always reminds me of showing your humanity. I don't know, you don't always...Diving into portraits of people, it always...You look into [the subject's humanity] and their inner worlds more than you normally would,” she explains. Though there’s nothing in particular that Stevens is trying to say to her audience, her work is almost always fueled by human connection and the intimate moments that humans share with one another in this modern day and age saturated with technological advancements like cell phones and social media.
To describe Stevens’ work as anything other than sur-realistic would be an understatement. Mainly focusing on various living subjects, Stevens often adds a touch of what can only be described as magic. Blurring faces, missing body parts, abstract layering and shading—you name it, she’s probably tried it. Stevens places her subjects in common spaces, but often unexpectedly, for example, an intricately drawn figure, with a hastily drawn head holds its more detailed noggin in its hands. A rogue eye floats on the subject's leg as it’s brought into existence in an abstract lush green forest in Stevens’ work, In The Woods 2 (2020) (pictured below). A classic example of obscuring the tangible and the fantastical.
In The Woods 2, 2020
As a recent graduate, illustrator, and fine artist, Stevens has created an artist statement to supplement her work by explaining her inspiration, interests, and skillset to prospective viewers and buyers. A selection of said statement, reprinted with Stevens expressed permission, reads,
“With a primary focus on portraiture and spaces in graphite and paint, Michelle Stevens’ work takes a look at what lies beyond everyday perception and awareness. Her pieces often feature psychological and surreal visual twists, visits to our complex inner worlds, and the layers of both individual and collective experience, in a societal structure that often disconnects us. A focus on human connection acts as her personal reminder of the importance of showing humanity in the modern age.
Through explorations of time and movement, as well as the layers and lengths of our human awareness, Michelle’s work conveys the abstract, figuratively. She is influenced by human connection, what societies accept as reality, and the reaches of our senses.”
When it comes to other forms of art, Stevens finds herself drawn to film and photography, citing movement as one of her biggest inspirations. One of her childhood hobbies included “messing around with Windows Movie Maker.” Stevens remarks, “And making home videos and stuff and I remember thinking if I had four lifetimes, I'd ...if I could go for every major there was at MassArt, that'd be awesome, but that's not feasible. I feel like I...Photography as well…I love photography. I've gotten away from it. I want to get back into it. taking some photography classes in high school and then a film class in college and having photo friends and I still take photos for reference photos a lot, but now with my smartphone, I tend to just use that. but I have recently taken my camera back out and I'm trying to be better about that this year. But now that we're not going out a lot because of the pandemic, there's not that much new stuff to take photos of, but in a normal year—quote "normal”—whatever, in a normal year, I would be walking around, I'd take it with me anywhere and whatever strikes me, I'd take photos.”
Mini Q&A w/Stevens
Who or what inspires you?
M: I could go on forever. I feel like I could go on forever about people in my life for sure. Just in general I feel like that's always my main source. Either the people that have been in my life forever or meeting new people. Those are always fuel and important to me and I love connecting with people and fostering relationships with people. If that's a term? I think it is. So, I could go on forever about that, but I guess I'll focus more on artists that inspire me. Right now, I've been thinking about this artist named Dan Quintana. He's done stuff for DC Comics and he was supposed to do BTS's world tour poster before it got canceled and he's done a billion other things than that, but he's…he's SO good. He's an oil painter and he's…like I said, he's done work for DC Comics, so he just does all kinds of things, but his work is so beautiful and I love his layering and he does graphite drawings too, but he's awesome. He's someone that I've been thinking about a lot and exploring and learning more about lately.
Other contenders for inspiration include Jenny Morgan, one of Stevens’ all-time favorites. She’s been following her work online for years. Morgan’s recent exploration of objects and spaces, veering away from strictly portraiture is something that Stevens has incorporated into her own work, slowly branching out of portraiture to document spaces, like her campgrounds series that she completed after working at a summer camp for a portion of the pandemic summer of 2020. Seeing Morgan’s expansion of muses was the nudge Stevens needed to remind her that you don’t have to stick to just one thing in the duration of your career when it comes to creating. Stevens is also drawn to the work of Alexandra Levasseur, a Canadian animator, illustrator, and sculptor. She loves Levasseur’s ability to have her art cross mediums and retain their beauty. Stevens has also been interested in animation and has completed several graphite animations as personal projects as well as advertising for businesses like Goswick Eye. “The idea of moving drawings and graphite moving for me was like so exciting,” Stevens remarks about her animations.” The last on her contemporary list is Armando Veve, another graphite artist and graduate of RISD, whose graphite, imagination, and world-building are sources of inspiration for Stevens. Upon finding out through his podcast that he used the same pencil and paper brands as Stevens, she was reassured in her own materials choice. In terms of classic masters, Stevens admires the work of Salvador Dali and Gustav Klimt, saying they “always have a special place in my heart.”
Speaking of the people that you admire and the art that you admire, who do you admire? tell me about your muses. What are you drawn to? Why are you drawn to those people, objects, etc.? what gets you going?!
M: Ooh. I was thinking about this earlier. I've always been...I'm not super involved in the world, but I've always been attracted to fashion in the sense of fashion photography always fascinated me because...just the angles that people get their bodies at and the clothes…I love clothes. And colors and textures and patterns. And dramatic lighting in photos and different faces and seeing all kinds of...how vastly different humans can appear and all of that. So, visual beauty, and I mentioned this before a little bit, landscapes and stuff like that gets me excited. New spaces and open spaces reinvigorate me. Especially right now. After being cooped up in my house. But definitely, other mediums just get me going. I love watching people perform and dance and express [themselves] with their bodies. Yeah, I'm no pro, like I said I've been doing a lot of dance tutorials and that's just to keep an exercise regime that's fun, but also I get so hyped when I have a dance down. Yeah, and I mean a lot of the portraits that I've been doing lately are close up and on people's faces, but for full-body drawings, to get my body moving and thinking about different positions and angles, and all that as well when I'm dancing and moving is helpful and gets my brain going. What else? I've talked about books too, but just new stories. I might do some more projects in the future where I just do illustrations of some stories for fun that I love, which isn't really totally in line with what I'm doing right now, but I just read Valis by Philip K. Dick and, I mean the book is nuts. It's all about a man having a psychotic break, but thinking about—once again—the words, just how much I love words, certain sentences, I would be like, "Oh my god. That would make such a great drawing," or "Oh I can see this in my head so well." And I just read House of Leaves for the first time as well, so that always gives me fuel, even if I'm not directly illustrating those books in the future, maybe they'll still inspire drawings that, down the road, that they'll still become my own thing, but they started off in those places. Especially right now, I'm not hanging out with people all the time. I'm not meeting new people and going [to] new places so my media intake, like with a lot of people, is what is inspiring me.
Writer Slandie Prinston for Boston Art Review, Issue 06, 2020
Currently, Stevens’ piece entitled ‘Ex-Husband’ will be displayed in a show at ConcordArt and she has also created a number of illustrations for Issue 06 of Boston Art Review, most notably, a portrait of writer slandie prinston that accompanies their essay. You can visit Boston Art Review’s site here to purchase Issue 06. Fifteen percent of sales from Issue 06 will be distributed to Mothers for Justice and Equality, Youth Guidance’s ‘Becoming A Man Boston Program,’ Build Boston, and Black Market.
Get into the artistic flow with this personalized playlist from Michelle Stevens entitled ‘Hyperion.’ It includes her current top 15 favorite tunes that she uses to get into the zone while producing her sharp and poignant graphite pieces. Stuck in a creative rut? Take some time to listen to these vibey beats and poppy bangers for the ultimate rush of innovation.
To browse and purchase artwork from Michelle Stevens, click here to be led directly to her online shop where you’ll find a selection of prints and originals.
Go on a virtual trip to Stevens’ online gallery full of recent and archived works of art featuring both black and white and colorful pieces created in graphite, paint, and other materials.