BAP Michelle Moats FIN UPDATED
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[00:00:00] Michelle: That's one of the things I love about fiber. It is so flexible. I am constantly experimenting.
[00:00:07] Marijanel: You take it and you process it through your own style, and in your case through your own medium.
[00:00:12] Michelle: Life is short. Follow your passions. Don't let your fear of trying things get in your way.
[00:00:19] Marijanel: And it speaks volumes that you, not even being a painter, can learn and grow inside of the school of painters.
Welcome to the show today. I am so delighted to be here on the Bold Artist Podcast with Michelle Moats, who is a student at Bold School and not just a an artist, but she is a fiber artist who has learned among painters. And Michelle, I cannot wait to hear your story. You are a standalone artist and we're so thrilled to have you on the podcast today.
[00:00:54] Michelle: Oh, well I am so thrilled to be here. It feels surreal that I'm on a Bold Artist, uh, Podcast. But I'm really excited to, to share a little bit about my journey.
[00:01:06] Marijanel: You're one of those faithful listeners of this show, aren't you?
[00:01:09] Michelle: I, I am. Yes.
[00:01:11] Marijanel: Yeah. And so here you are, you're a guest on the show. So, we're so glad to have you. Can we start off today by just hearing a little bit about who you are, where you're from, and what you do at for your art form?
[00:01:22] Michelle: Sure. Well, first of all, I'm a fiber artist. If you can't tell from all of my surroundings back here, I, I paint with wool fibers. This is a, a relatively new art form for me, although I've been a creative for many, many years.
I recently retired and I was planning to go into consulting, and I decided to pursue career as a fiber artist instead.
[00:01:51] Marijanel: Wow, that's,
[00:01:51] Michelle: I live in a
[00:01:53] Marijanel: oh yeah, no, continue, continue.
[00:01:55] Michelle: Oh, I was just gonna say, I live in a, in a small town in Pennsylvania. I live in Shippensburg, um, not so far from the Harrisburg area.
[00:02:06] Marijanel: Wonderful. I was gonna say, when you, when you said you made a shift from consulting to fiber art, that's a big change. That's a big, pivotal move. And so what led you to make that kind of shift?
[00:02:19] Michelle: Well, I, I actually was in a very technical career. I did, I have a background in IT, data science, accounting, and I, when I retired, I, I think I had all this creativity just waiting to burst out.
I'd always been fitting those kind of activities in my spare time. So once I retired, I had a lot of time to dedicate to it. So here I am.
[00:02:45] Marijanel: That's so special. Now, you said in your introduction that you paint with wool. That fascinates me that you frame it that first of all, that you just phrase it that way.
But what does it mean for those who are watching and listening? What does it mean that you would paint with wool?
[00:03:02] Michelle: Well, I actually use bits of wool fiber, and for those of you who are watching, I can actually show you. But it really, honestly, the best comparison is, think of it maybe like your dryer lint. Only it's a lot nicer than that. And I, it's dyed in all different colors, so that is my paint that I use. And I can layer it just like somebody would if they would be using traditional paints.
[00:03:30] Marijanel: Okay, so then does that mean that you need to have all the colors that painters do and can you mix colors the way painters mix?
Like what does that mean to transfer the medium of wool into a technique that a painter would use?
[00:03:46] Michelle: I can do a little bit of mixing, but I prefer to get the, the colors pre-dyed. I've actually signed up for some dying classes. I'm hoping to be able to start to dye some of my own wools so I can make some of the colors.
But certainly some of the lessons that we've had in Bold School where I see all the theories about the best ways to mix color. I've tried to do that somewhat with my fiber. I've had limited success with that, but I'm gonna keep trying. But mostly I buy it pre-dyed.
[00:04:17] Marijanel: Well, that sums you up in all that I know of you, Michelle, as a student inside of Bold School is the words, "I'm gonna keep trying."
You have so much try and you, when I said in the intro that you're a standalone artist, what I mean by that is, is I just wanna put this in context for our watchers and listeners that michelle is part of Bold School, which is an online, our online painting school where we teach classes and we have an online community that mentors artists to become wholehearted and skilled, and it's all mostly centered around the art of painting.
We have o, we offer some other mediums. There's some sketching and pastels are coming down the pipe at Bold School. But Michelle is a fiber artist who paints with wool, and from my knowledge, you're the only fiber artist in Bold School. Am I correct or, or do you, are you aware of any others that are painting with wool in Bold School?
[00:05:13] Michelle: Well, I, I did have a friend that was also, uh, painting with wool that joined for a period of time. I don't believe she's a part of the community any longer.
[00:05:24] Marijanel: Okay. Well then your, your stands alone. And so that makes you very unique. And what I, what fascinates me and intrigues me, Michelle, is that you are learning your art of painting wool in, uh, amongst all the painters of Bold School and being unique.
And being strong in your form and your medium, and doing your thing, and I love that about you. You just are doing your thing. What does it feel like to be the only one in, in the sea of painters to be the only one?
[00:05:57] Michelle: Oh, well, I, I should go back to when I first joined. I can tell you I was scared to death. So I, I started out, um, knowing how to, uh, do fiber arts first.
So I use a couple techniques. One technique is called needle felting, and I actually use, uh, a needle with barbs on it, and I stab the little fibers until they felt together. And that's how I create the painting. That's one method. There's another method where I use, uh, soapy water and agitation, and that's called wet felting.
So, that's the technique I use, and I learned how to do that first, but I really wanted to paint portraits using bold colors. And so when I found Bold School, I, I really debated like, this is not my medium, but I don't know any other classes that exist out there that can teach me this kind of thing. So I decided to sign up.
I watched a bunch of the classes and kind of stayed in the background for a while, and then I decided if I'm gonna get the most out of this, I'm gonna have to speak up and engage and get feedback from the mentors. So I remember I made my very first post, and I said, uh, I'm here to admit I'm a fiber artist lurking in your midst, and I'm going to paint, but I'm going to use wool fibers. And I can't tell you how wonderful the reception was.
Everybody was so welcoming and so curious about the art form. It's, it's really been great. And it's been amazing how much of the concept actually translates over to fiber.
[00:07:43] Marijanel: Yeah, absolutely. And I guess that what you just shared here goes to, to relay the kind of heart and, uh, spirit that is amongst the Bold School community that we, those welcoming, open arms that you could actually say, Hey, I'm not even a painter.
Uh, well, I'm painting with a completely different thing than paint, and I am here to just be part and to grow. And then there, there was the welcoming and the open arms. And I love that spirit behind Bold School and how it, it like the whole school, the mentors, the, the peers, the students, everyone's just there supporting each other and offering critiques.
So has the, I'm sure the critique has been valuable for you as well, cuz even though it's not the same medium that you're using, there's still a lot that translates. Like you said, you, you know, you still have to get. Composition and values, and, and if you're doing portraits, is like the placement of features.
So then there's that whole, uh, critique aspect from the mentors and peers that would really help to grow you.
[00:08:54] Michelle: Yeah. I, I, in fact, I think at first some of the, my peers and the mentors were maybe a little timid to say, I don't know if my advice is even gonna translate, but they, they gave me advice anyway, and it's been, it's been excellent.
I really wouldn't be where I am today as an artist if it hadn't been for Bold School.
[00:09:18] Marijanel: Wow. Well, we're so thankful to have you in our midst and doing your thing and just being your own person, being your own artist. So what are you working on now? Like where, where we, we've seen you grow as an artist and you have developed this unique technique, which honestly, I don't know a lot of others out there that are painting with wool.
I'm sure it's a thing. I'm sure it's happening, but I'm unaware of, you know ,that community, and so it's like you're starting, you're edging into this new thing, and so where are you at with it right now? Do you feel like you've mastered one aspect and you're pushing yourself into something new? What are you working on?
[00:09:57] Michelle: Oh, well that, that's one of the things I love about fiber. It is so flexible, and I can go from one thing to the next, and so I am constantly experimenting. So, I've been focused, of course, being a part of Bold School, very much on portraits. You can see some of them behind me, but we just rolled out a brand new class on landscapes, and so I took my, my first stab at, at doing a landscape, so I'm eager to actually.
[00:10:29] Marijanel: When you say stab, you mean stab? No pun unintended.
[00:10:34] Michelle: You're right.
[00:10:36] Marijanel: I just had to throw that in there.
[00:10:39] Michelle: I never thought of it. That's, that's pretty good. Um, so I, I, I'm curious to try more landscapes. I really enjoy painting portraits because I love to capture expressive faces, especially the eyes. That's my favorite thing to paint.
But I, I wanna give landscapes a try just to see. So I, I see a, a lot of, um, experimentation I plan to do with different subject matter, but I also experiment a lot with techniques. So I, I mix back and forth between needle felting and wet felting, and I combine the two, but there's a lot of other, uh, techniques I can do to add more texture into my paintings. So, I have plans to experiment with those, as well.
[00:11:29] Marijanel: Thank you for joining us on The Bold Artist Podcast. You can find all of our links in the description box and show notes. Make sure that you're on our newsletter list. You can get on that list at boldschool.com to find out all of our current news happenings what's going on in the Bold School community and in our online classes.
We'd love to see you in the community. We have a vibrant online space where there is mentorship, challenges, critiques, growth as an artist together. We work together at Bold School to get better at both skill and being a wholehearted artist. We wanna welcome you to get involved in our community and classes today.
Until next time, keep. Creating.
Oh, that's so fascinating. So I do see that you have, uh, the class that we just released, uh, landscape, bold, Bold Landscapes with Noémie L. Côté. We just released that into the Bold School classes. And I see that you have done the bootcamp right there with felting.
[00:12:32] Michelle: Yes. My first pa, my first landscape.
[00:12:35] Marijanel: Beautiful. So did you find that to be a challenge? And did you have fun? What did you learn from it?
[00:12:43] Michelle: Uh, all of the above, I think. Um, I did have fun. I, I learned a ton. Usually when I take a class, I try to follow along because I'm already changing the medium, so I don't wanna change too much more when I do that.
And then afterwards I sit back and reflect, what did I learn from it? There were some things that were more difficult. The way she created her paint strokes, uh, was difficult for me to do with fiber. I feel like it didn't translate quite as well as I would've liked. But I actually did do a small painting.
I did a 12 by 12 as she was doing in class, and normally I work much bigger. So my plan for that is to find my own reference image. Try to take the theories that she taught us to apply to my reference image, and I'm gonna try to go a little bigger to see if it makes it easier for me to translate her brush stroke approach with how I'm doing the fiber.
[00:13:44] Marijanel: Yeah. And you know what I hear in that is just your persistence to grow and to like take what you can from the class and then make it work for you and experiment until it works for you. And I love that kind of persistence. Now is that naturally your personality, Michelle? Are you just a persistent I'm gonna try, I'm giving it my all person, or is this new to the art realm?
[00:14:07] Michelle: No, that's pretty much my, my personality. Uh, and, and I love to learn and experiment. I mean, that's been a part of my life forever and I'm just now having a chance to apply it to felting.
[00:14:23] Marijanel: Yeah. So what's happening in the world of your art, like, career? Are you doing this as, as something that, that you sell and it's a business?
Or is this your just joy and hobby? What, where are you at with that?
[00:14:36] Michelle: I have turned it into an art business, Michelle Moats Art, I, and I've been submitting to a lot of exhibits and into different galleries. I find, again, I like a challenge. So a lot of exhibits have a certain theme, so that allows me to, to think through how could I take what they're trying to express and, and paint something that represents that.
So I do a lot of, a lot of those and, and I actually just started doing something new that I'm pretty excited about. Uh, I have had a chance to do a few volunteer activities, as well. Um, in fact, last night I went to one of our art associations, and we had, um, some children there, and we had a chance to do a, a wet felting project with them, as well.
So that was also a lot of fun.
[00:15:26] Marijanel: That's amazing. That's something that I derive a lot of joy from is when I do classes with kids and get to see them try things for the first time. Um, back in my pottery days, I would take around clay and let them try it and, and just see them light up and, and some kids were like, this is the first time I've ever played with this kind of clay.
You know, cuz they get exposed to. Play-Doh and that, that sort of medium, but the actual potters clay. And so for them, are they fascinated by the wool? Like, what, what do they, they say and feel about the wool?
[00:15:57] Michelle: Oh, they loved it and it, we were doing wet felting. It was a lot safer than putting needles in children's hands.
And so of course they loved playing in the soapy water. Uh, and I had had one child, we were actually, uh, making fun pencil holders. So we were felting around the pencil. And one of the, one of the children, he, he didn't want to do that, so he just made a big piece of colorful felt. And he had great fun with that.
So again, I just absolutely love the flexibility of, of working with fiber.
[00:16:32] Marijanel: Well, doesn't that show you a little artist in the making, someone who wants to break the rules from the start and say, I don't wanna do that. I wanna do my own thing. Which is why it's sometimes so hard to be an artist and follow a class because we don't wanna do that.
We wanna do our own thing. But taking classes and learning from someone who's that step ahead and from an expert and then doing what you've demonstrated where you take it and you process it through your own style and in your case, through your own medium, and then into your own style, is, is just, uh, it, well, it's a, a really important part of the artist process, but it's also, um, not only important, I think it's necessary in order to find who we are, like ourselves as, as individuals, our own style. And I love that about what you are demonstrating. What you are representing is saying like, Hey, here I am, I make art with a completely different medium, but I'm in a school of painters, and I'm doing my own thing, and I'm gonna take the classes, and learn from it and turn it into my own.
And that's really, really powerful. So if there was someone, Michelle, who was... they feel alone in a way. Like, let's say they feel alone as an artist, that they're, they kind of feel like they march to their own drum, and they're doing their own thing and they're not able to quite be as persistent as you, or as versatile in learning amongst such a different group of peers.
What would you say to them in, in that uniqueness, that place that they are? What would you say to them as they feel different? As they feel alone?
[00:18:18] Michelle: I, I, I would say find something that you love to do that brings you joy. And then just be brave, be bold. Right? Um, it, the reason I'm able to, to step out and do this in this community is because it's so much fun.
I, I, I have get so much joy from it, and I want to learn more. So, it empowers me to go out and try new things in different ways in order to improve what I'm doing. So, find something you're passionate about and then just be brave to step out.
[00:18:58] Marijanel: Those are just such wise, powerful words. And also in that I can see like if they're feeling alone and like they're the only ones, just to know that you're not alone.
And as you step out, you'll find others, uh, like-minded and that you can fit in with. And that's another reason that I just think the Bold School community offers such a safe place to learn and grow. Um, and it speaks volumes that you not even being a painter, can learn and grow inside of a school of painters.
So what is the next exciting thing that you're hoping to try and do? You said you're gonna be adding some other textures into your felting work, but what, like, what ways are you expanding in your art and challenging yourself?
[00:19:42] Michelle: So, much like I said, I, I learned how to do, uh, needle felting. I signed up for some classes for that, and now I'm learning more about some basic painting theories, color theories, much that I've learned through Bold School.
Now I'm actually going back to the felting world, and I'm going to try to learn more. But this time I'm planning to go to, um, felting more from a a 3D or even from a wearables perspective. I wanna learn some of their techniques that they use and see how I can apply that to the 2D world.
[00:20:21] Marijanel: Wow. Yeah. No, I love how you're pushing yourself into new realms with these challenges and just growing, growing, and so you probably tuned in to a couple episodes back when we had Melissa Nasby on the show, puppet maker.
She calls herself a professional mess maker, but she's a fiber artist and puppet maker. You were probably very fascinated by her lifestyle and art form, I'm sure.
[00:20:46] Michelle: Oh, I, I was, in fact, I, I felt like we were, we, we had the same story. I mean, that is really the beauty of, of being a fiber artist is that you can really take it in so many different directions.
And right now I'm working with, with fiber. I've worked with a lot of other textiles. I've worked with fabrics, I've done knitting, I've done weaving. So there's so many different ways that you can use fiber and ultimately everything that I'm do, I've done, I've been able to bring together into, into myself as a fiber artist now,
[00:21:24] Marijanel: Yeah. It's funny that when in the beginning when you, uh, described fiber being like dryer lint when you were describing for the audio listeners, because I remember at times being such a, I'm a highly creative individual and so like I like to create with anything, and I remember so many times doing laundry, and taking out that dryer lint and thinking, I wish we could do something cool with this cuz it's a shame to throw it away.
And then I remember like one time actually Googling like, what craft can I do with dryer lint? I'm like Marijanel, surely you have something better to do. Than to make things with dryer lint. But you know, you never know where that could go.
[00:22:03] Michelle: Oh, well, I, I have to say I have never actually used dryer lint, but I have heard of some people experimenting with it.
[00:22:11] Marijanel: Yeah. There might be something to that.
It's crossed my mind. I don't like to waste things. So I think what can it become? What kind of art can it become? So maybe it's being art be being turned into art out there. So Michelle, just in wrapping up of today's podcast, I first wanna thank you for being on the show and being, so willing to be an individual, and stand out in the crowd and go against the flow, and do what you're doing. In leaving off with just a word of encouragement for the Bold School community, for any of those tuning in to listen to your story of being a fiber art artist in a painter's community, what would you like to leave everyone off with?
Just as just a a, an encouraging word that, that we can give to everyone in, in their art life today?
[00:23:05] Michelle: Well, I, I would just say life is short. Follow your passions. Don't let your fear of trying things get in your way. And it's amazing when you step out, the community that's there to support you. I have just been astounded by the Bold community and my local art community.
Everybody has just been absolutely fabulous, so don't be afraid to try.
[00:23:34] Marijanel: Yes. Don't be afraid to try, and be brave to step out. If Michelle Moats reminds us and represents anything, I think that that sums it up, Michelle, is just don't be afraid to step out and try and be different. And so I just wanna thank everyone for tuning in to today's podcast.
You know where to find us @boldschool.com. Hop on our newsletter list there so you don't miss a beat of Bold School. We have classes online where we teach bold color painting, and as Michelle has demonstrated, you can turn what you learn into whatever medium or art form you want to apply it to. We have amazing mentors and a community that are there to help grow you into wholehearted and skilled artists.
So, do check us out today if you're not already involved. In the meantime, until next time, keep creating.
