Michelle Torrez

Art Brokerage: Michelle Torrez American Artist: Born in Denver, Colorado, Michelle was the oldest of four children from a working class family. Known for her powerful and elegant work, Michelle Torrez's expressionistic oil paintings of figures are vivid and painterly. But on closer examination, there are qualities that are not obvious: Michelle communicates the beauty of unlikely emotions. Michelle qualifies her work as "In my paintings, I am trying to communicate the feeling of a place. Everywhere I look, I see flashes of color. The flashes of color come through me to represent the culture, the environment, the personality of that person and surroundings. I want to capture life and movement because life is movement, and with movement you have life. My paint dances across the canvas, because I hope to express the sanctity of life with a powerful figure on my canvas." Michelle Torrez believes that the greatest influences on her work were the circumstances of her childhood and teenage years. Her life has influenced her to look deeper to find the beauty and humanity in people and places. In Dallas, she worked as an art director for an advertising agency and began to explore the medium of sculptural jewelry. After returning to her native Colorado, she continued a career in advertising until 1994 when she formed a mural painting company, Studio M. Her murals appear in private residences and companies throughout Colorado. Listings wanted.