My name is Michelle Carrasquilla, I am an artist and teacher from the northern suburbs of Chicago. I grew up in the Chicagoland area and currently reside in Seattle Washington. I currently am the Department Chair of the Performing and Fine Arts Department and am a Visual Arts Teacher at the high school level.
Art became my passion at a young age after my father died. I found an amazing outlet in art. I started recreationally attending private art schools in elementary school, attending continuing education classes in high school at a local community college and continue to regularly attend local arts classes through various art centers in the Chicago land area. Formally, I attended University of Iowa and Northern Illinois University to earn a Bachelor's in Art education and my Type 10 certification to teach k-12. In addition, I have a Masters of Fine Art from The School of the Art Institute Of Chicago.
Because I have a love for all things creative, I find ways of incorporating art into everything I do. Adapting these skills into other professions I also am a professional artist, freelance muralist, scenic painter and do makeup professionally. I have my esthetics license from Tricoci University of Beauty Culture.
In my 10th year of teaching, I live every day to mentor developing artists. It is my lifelong passion finding inspiration from my experiences with my students, often learning and growing right along with them. In my own artistic practice I primarily work with oil paint and consider painting my master skill. Although a traditional media, contemporary painting is still evolving today and I am very much apart of that world, spending my free time showing my work, developing my studio practice and staying connected to the art world. I feel strongly that to stay relevant as a teacher one must practice subject. I am an artist first and teaching in part of my practice. I enjoy pushing the limits of the material and discovering non-traditional applications such as glitter, assemblage and LED. Currently I am working on circular kaleidoscopic portraits of women that are LED backlit.
As a teacher, I am a natural leader and find it easy to work with students and share my love for art with them. I am energetic and ambitious in my pursuits. I work very hard to stay current, to always be reflective in my teaching practice and am constantly trying to learn and grow as an educator and artist not just in skill but in best practice. I strongly believe in visual culture and see the importance in teaching to artistic behaviors, developing problem solving skills and teaching 21st century visual literacy skills. I believe that art can change the world and am a huge proponent for art advocacy. I love to learn and always am looking for new medias and materials to tackle and to teach. It is my desire to teach at least an appreciation and understanding of art to students. Art can truly compliment any subject and help boost test score by introducing interdisciplinary outlets and methods to students. I strongly believe that art is necessary in schools and that visual literacy is an important component to student learning in this technological and visually saturated world. As part of the teaching community, I devote large amounts of time to being involved at school and developing relationships with not only my students but work colleagues. Teaching is all about relationships and I believe it is vital to foster these when working with young people.