Michele Parlee is a musician and self-taught artist. Growing up in San Antonio, Texas, her style reflects the vibrant colors and cultural motifs of traditional Mexican folk-art, combined with the contemporary pop-art flair often found in the Southwest border region.
Working in a variety of media, she combines polymer clay, traditional Mexican tinwork, wood, glass and recycled objects to create elaborate mosaics and embossed metal shrines. Michele also hand sculpts and fabricates one of a kind jewelry art pieces out of precious metal clays and mixed metals. Mexican folk art themes, including sacred hearts, Day of the Dead, Frida Kahlo and religious iconography are her inspiration. Although her works include small scale glass and mixed media mosaics, her most recent artistic endeavors have focused primarily on large scale glass mosaic sculpture combined with one of a kind hand fused glass elements.
Michele currently resides in New Mexico where she participates in juried shows, teaches workshops and exhibits her work in local and regional galleries. She has also written articles for local, regional and national publications.
