MICHI FARIAS : Finding My Style
"...I feel like I haven't quite found that thing or style that's really speaking to me yet. I'm still in the process of learning what I like..."
Michi Farias welcomed Jasmine Bruce and me into PaLatte, a coffee shop and art gallery on Fulton St. in downtown Grand Rapids. Her family established PaLatte in 2013 as a way to create a marketplace for their art while serving tasty refreshments to the community.
"I was raised by two artists. So I feel like we made art our life, and we want to - with this space - support local artists, get my art sold, and my parents' art sold, and just bring more art to the public because public art makes people's lives better."
On the wall above our comfortable seating area hangs her mother Maria's paintings, right next to Michi's own recent masterpieces. Her father Federico's paintings are displayed on the opposite wall, along with other local artists' work that they help sell and bring attention to.
"My parents, they met at art school. When I was little, I didn't even know what my parents were doing, you know, you're a kid, so you don't really understand. So once they were like, oh, we're graphic designers, here are our drawings from college, it inspired me to pursue art. I am super inspired by their realistic artwork - I stared at those forever...
"My dad taught me airbrush and spray paint. I also work with acrylics, oil, Prismacolor pencils, graphite. I'm pretty good with most mediums. My art isn't consistent. I change a lot. I can paint anything, but I'm not really stuck on one theme yet because I haven't found just one style to stick to."
What themes does she explore with her art? Michi listed off a few as she showed us photos on her phone and pointed out her paintings hanging around the room.
"I really like playing with themes of psychedelia, dreams, a lot of environmentalism too - our connection with nature, where we come from, how we can help our environment and get people to appreciate it more, things that are overlooked. Also historical stuff, like with the Grand Rapids Chicks mural - that helps support local history and gets younger people interested in the women of our history in Grand Rapids that we don't hear about on a daily basis."
Behind the Auto Fixit Body Shop, on the corner of Ottawa and Newberry, Michi painted a large mural of the GR Chicks 1945 All-American Baseball team - a heroic group of women who helped keep the spirit of baseball alive after World War II. As part of our ongoing Women’s Way initiative, this mural was one in a series of public artworks that memorialize and celebrate important women in the Grand Rapids community.
This summer, Michi also worked with Lions & Rabbits on our Barricades initiative, which can be seen outside the Pyramid Scheme. And in the parking lot of our gallery, you can find a colorful octopus that she painted for us last year.
Michi Farias : “1945 GR Chicks Mural” - Philomena Zale, Twila Shively, Elsie Earl
"It's boring to draw the same thing over and over again," Michi tells us.
"I agree," Jasmine relates, "and I don't know where that comes from. I don't know if that's realistic even to have just one way. I think there's something special about that versatility and that variation being your style. I've kind of just leaned into that too. I can't just use one thing every time."
"It would drive me nuts!" remarks Michi, "I don't want to be bored making art. Art needs to be exciting, and I feel like just getting stuck to one style isn't what's gonna make me grow. The whole point of this is, how am I going to better myself as a person and as an artist, and make my art stand out and make people interested in it? I want to make the best art I can. I want to keep pushing it forward, growing it, you know. What's my next step? What am I gonna be able to do ten years from now? It's that mind game."
Michi painting barricades in front of The Pyramid Scheme
Michi Farias : “1945 GR Chicks Mural” - panorama
I asked her about artists she looks up to and is inspired by. She gave us a bunch of names, some of them local to Grand Rapids, some I'd never heard of before, and some that were historically famous: Pat Perry, Alessandra Sulpy, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Jean Pierre Roy. Shepard Fairey. Michelangelo.
"... and Salvador Dali - he would keep a dream journal and then make art based on that. I literally do that too. I think he's a genius for that."
Jasmine adds, "I use my dreams as inspiration a lot too, and I haven't really met a lot of people that do that as well. So I'd love to hear more about what you take from them, and what's the intention behind illustrating your dreams?"
"I think dreams are really powerful. I have extremely vivid dreams. I am my most creative when I'm sleeping. I'll get it down immediately to try to just retain the imagery that I saw because I feel like it's free creativity. It's fun. What is my brain doing at night? I don't know!" Michi laughs.
"Do you feel like in some ways that, by putting it into your artwork and painting it, you learn anything from that? Or is it just pure expressing?" I ask.
"A lot of it is just expressive, but I don't know. It's hard to describe stuff with dreams. I find sleep itself really interesting because we're asleep for a third of our lives. It's like you're in this different realm and very close to death. It's a completely different state of mind. What is your brain thinking about? Why is it thinking this? It's all just so interesting. I want to get to know my unconscious self - who is she? It's super weird, and I think that's inspiring. It's an easy thing to tap into. That's how I came up with these weird things like that one."
She points out a colorful illustration hanging just above her head, titled "The Rhythm of Sorting Through Dreams."
"I have a lot of dreams about hair because I have alopecia. I wear wigs. So I had this dream where my hair just kept growing and kept growing. This is kind of literal take on that idea, but I wanted it to represent dreams and thoughts too with these little orbs - what's going on in the unconscious brain? What ideas am I sorting through when I'm sleeping? And hair has this representation of time too. Hair's got a lot of meaning to it - the longer your hair is, the more time it's been on your head. So in this, it's like she's here forever. She has the longest hair, and she's here forever sorting through her dreams, stuck in that trance."
Circling back to her inspirations, she recalls a quote from Michelangelo that resonates strongly with her: "What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed?"
Michi draws our attention to a few of her other paintings around the room as she interprets that quote. "When you look at a painting, the clothes instantly put it in an era. It's very stuck there. I want my work to be kinda modern, but still timeless. The work I have hanging here explores the human body and human form - natural bodies, real people. Honest representations of women, and just celebrating realness because I feel like people's perceptions of each other are tainted by the images we see online, and everything is so photoshopped.
"Too many women have never seen their body type represented in a painting or in media. That's not okay. The majority of paintings in the world are just the same, very homogenous thing, and I want to have variety in who I paint - who I elevate into the status of fine art.
"I like painting people just as they are. There's no form that is ideal for a woman to have. Let's see what real people look like. That's what I'm doing recently. I'm really into that kind of art because it's controversial. I don't like these sort of puritanical ways that people are treating bodies in the US, so I'm gonna put as many boobs and butts around as possible, until people calm down about it," she says with a big grin.
"I want to push boundaries in Grand Rapids. People get upset, but that's why I do it. It's like, these are regular bodies, and you're taking offense with it, for what? It's not even sexual. I don't like that sort of attitude towards people's bodies. I feel like that's because women are overly sexualized in the first place. I feel like Grand Rapids needs to change in terms of that. If we want to be the best art city, we need to be more accepting."
After a short break to refill our coffee and tea, I ask her, "What kind of boundaries are you pushing for yourself? What barriers in your own life do you want to break down?"
"I am very insecure. A lot of people are insecure. Everyone's insecure, you know? And I have this health condition where I have no hair. I feel like hair loss is something that's really hard, on women in particular, because your hair is your crown.
"But once you lose your hair, it's like you really see yourself - your true face. The Buddhists have this idea where you shave your head, and you really see your true face. I love that because I feel like I didn't actually know who I was until I shaved my head. It kind of brought myself down to my most basic self - almost like a giant baby. It's... being reborn. Yeah, it is. It's like being reborn. Try it! Shave your head!" she giggles.
"I have a ton of different wigs. I like matching my hair to my outfits. If I have this condition where I have no hair, I might as well turn it into this stylistic benefit, where I can wear whatever hair I want with an outfit and have it match so perfectly. And my bald head is cute as fuck, and this is who I am.
"So I want my next move, my next big painting to maybe be like one of these, of me, more vulnerable. No wig. No nothing. I haven't done a self-portrait like that yet. I want to push myself to do a bald self-portrait or something super vulnerable that talks about that hair loss because I've met so many women that are dealing with it too, and it was so hard on them, and I want to normalize that too. Women come in many different shapes and sizes, and with hair and without. I want to celebrate that. It's me being me.
"But I don't know. I also feel I'm starting to move away from this specific style, the odalisque, the nude model. I want to take it to the next level, move on to the next phase, get weird. I also kinda want to have a blue phase..."
Picasso, famously, went through his blue period after his close friend died.
"I had a friend, a street artist. He passed away about two years ago. Seal - you probably saw a bunch of his tags everywhere. He was a really good friend of mine through art school. We went to Kendall together. He was one of the few people I actually collaborated with. I have some pieces in my home that we both worked on. I used his paint for the murals. I wanted to make some beautiful work with his stuff, so that's why I dedicated that to him.
"I kind of thought it'd be cool to have a blue period, but I don't know. Those feelings - it's really hard. It's so hard losing a friend. But through that emotion, you learn how to express it. I have music, and I have art to put my emotions out there about things that happened, and it really is healing, you know? It makes you feel better again. And I feel like that's what's so addictive about art. It's ugly feelings, but you accept them over time. Grief is like that - you grow around it. But you can still celebrate people's lives through art, and I think that's awesome.
Michi Farias painting her “1945 GR Chicks Mural”
"I did that with the Grand Rapids Chicks, and I got the most amazing emails from their family members. They were like, 'you painted my grandma!', 'you painted my aunt!' That made me feel great. These people are really affected by this. It's celebrating these people who passed on. None of them are alive, but it really means a lot to their family members."
"Making those connections is so important," says Jasmine.
"Being an artist is not even about the art half the time. It's who you know, who you connect to, absolutely." Michi affirms. "Even when I'm pushing boundaries - when you make them feel uncomfy, that's an emotion that can be felt from the heart. Art isn't just, 'oh, this is so beautiful!' or 'this is so perfect!' - sometimes I explore that, something being ultra beautiful - but it's more about how you feel. 'I feel insecure because of this painting,' or 'I feel sad,' or 'I feel happy.' 'This painting makes me feel something.' The act of feeling something when you look at a work of art, I think that's the most important thing.
Michi Farias : “Amalgamate” - Pen and Ink, 2014
"I want to make people emote. I want to make them feel. And I have, judging from the coffee shop, working here and meeting people. Having that person feel something is the most beautiful thing in the world. I can't even describe that.
"If you make someone feel something, regardless of what it is when they look at your painting, it's like a superpower. I'm not even there with them, and yet I'm talking to them somehow."
"Yeah," Jasmine agrees, "your painting is reaching out and having a conversation, picking their brain."
"And that's what I want. I don't even care what other people want to say is good or bad. I want to know what makes them feel when they look at a piece. Their reaction to it is the best thing ever. I want people to have their own ideas as to what my art means."
Our drinks are getting low, so I return to the topic of finding your voice. I ask Michi if she thinks every artist needs to have their own singular, distinct style.
"I don't think so," she says, "I sell all my art, so I don't really care. Not all art is going to look the same. Everyone's gonna have their own opinions. So no matter what, there's going to be something you like in the shop."
"Is that something you think about at the beginning of a piece - who will like it? What is your process for that?" Jasmine asks.
"You've got the blank canvas, you know. That's the most intimidating thing in the world. The big blank canvas. What are you gonna make on it? It's not cheap to get a giant canvas. It's not an easy investment to get that image seen and put around the city. It's intimidating...
"I feel like it's a balance between being very smart and very dumb at the same time," she continues. "It's instinct, and if you think too hard, you'll mess up. You've got to follow your natural movements and instincts but then also pay attention to what you need to know and think about - asking, what is great about this technically? What is great about it creatively? What's great about the color selections? Are the colors good? Does it draw the eye? And then, what's the overall meaning, because that's the biggest deal of all. Why do I need to paint that? What am I gonna learn?"
After a few final sips of her coffee, Michi resolves our conversation with a final thought.
"It's so hard to define style. You have to keep moving on with artwork if you're going to be doing it professionally and living off it. You've got to keep the ball rolling forever. If I stick to one thing, I feel like I'll get stale, and I won't be able to come up with new ideas. That's why I do the jack of all trades thing. If I can paint whatever, I'm gonna paint everything. I can do anything, so let's get weird with it."
Michi has original artworks, prints and more available for sale at https://www.michifarias.com/
Go to her Instagram @michifariasart to see more of her work.
Visit Palatte Coffee & Art at 150 Fulton St E, Grand Rapids, MI 49503 to see her paintings in person and enjoy their delicious coffee.
