NOTES on PRACTICE

My practice explores the body as a site of transformation where different facets of life leave visible and invisible traces. Rather than depicting these experiences as isolated events, I approach them as forces that reshape identity, altering how we understand ourselves and the world around us.

Working primarily in acrylic paint, I use the human figure, textiles, and symbolic composition to create spaces that exist between the psychological and the corporeal. The body becomes both portrait and metaphor as it is a witness to what has been endured, inherited, resisted, and transformed.

My paintings are informed by literature, philosophy, religious imagery and lived experiences. I often return to questions surrounding womanhood, black identity and the tensions between vulnerability and resilience. These themes are not fixed subjects but pathways to the inquiry: how do our experiences continue to shape the people we become?

Rather than offering definitive narratives, my work invites contemplation. I hope viewers encounter reflections of their own lives within the paintings, recognizing transformation not as a single event but as a continual process of becoming.

LINKS

LETS CONNECT: :m.msami.art@gmail.com
:@msami.art
BC, Canada

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I, Michelle Msami, acknowledge that I am working, living and creating on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Stó:lō, Semá:th (Sumas), Mathxwí (Matsqui), and Leq\'á:mel First Nations.