Statement
The latest pieces (Clowns) have taken me in a somewhat different direction. Triggered by an invitation to a Self Portrait show, I traveled deep into myself to find “the Me”. What is my identity? Who am I? How do I want others to see me? Or do I care? As humans, are we or do we create ourselves? Isn’t life a continuous discovery of our selves? How do we decide what we like and what we do not like? Can we change? Ovid offered a brilliant gloss on this theme: “Yes, change was everywhere—it could be playful, extraordinary, or grotesque—but it was not random. Endangered women and assaulted emperors alike metamorphosed not according to their fancy but in response to the crises of their lives, and their metamorphoses were not games or disguises but revelations. “ Ovid’s characters changed, one might say, into themselves.
— Michaela Valli Groeblacher
Bio
In 2005, by then 45 years old, I fulfilled my lifelong dream and graduated from McPherson College with a bachelor’s degree in studio arts, concentrating in ceramics and painting. Now, in my third life, I combine my experience and my interest in the human psyche with both of my artistic loves by sculpting the human figure from clay and subsequently finishing the sculptures in a painterly manner. After receiving my MFA from Fort Hays State University, I now teach art at McPherson College.
My work has been shown in numerous galleries and museums throughout the United States in group, solo and juried shows and has received many awards. It is also part of multiple museums, private and corporate collections throughout the USA, Austria and Germany.