Artist

Purchase, Michelle

Title

What's he building up there?

Technique

etching

chine collé

collage

Date

2010

Dimensions

40.5 height x 40.5 width

Type

print

Accession Number

EC2019.1.1

Collection

Education Collection

Michelle Purchase is a printmaker who has been working at Globe Studios in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, since 2004. Originally from the Niagara Region, she studied printmaking at the University of Waterloo and landscape architecture at the University of Guelph. Michelle's work includes a mix of printmaking techniques including etching, monoprint, and lithography, printed on Japanese washi. Her work has been shown extensively in group and solo shows, notably at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and The Macdonald Stewart Art Centre. She has received Ontario Arts Council grants and won awards at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, and Guelph's Art On The Street. She has never built a real treehouse. Artist Statement: A hideout on the beach, an abandoned tree fort, a ramshackle shack - all spaces that are ideal for exploring an imaginary world. These are spaces where nature and culture co-exist; half constructed and half wild. I find the labour-intensive, unpredictable, yet repetitive, art of printmaking to be an effective medium to capture the atmosphere of these spaces. I hope that they inspire the viewer to build, to explore, or to imagine, something wonderful.