“You use a Mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your Soul.”
“I Believe that I am Driven on a Soul level to Create!”
At the southern edge of the Adirondack mountains, the wind whispers inspiration and shadows thrown by the towering pines bring visions to artist mi Chelle Vara.
Working in rugged materials, Vara Pries energy from thier stubborn strength, creating dimension, movment and emotion where there was none.
Born on the seacoast, Vara moved to the mountains a decade ago and found that her soul flew free, released to create on levels only once suspected.
Well-versed in Painting, Murls, Airbrush, Faux-finishes, Senic, Installations, Photography, Sculpture, Welding, Wood carving.
Over the past 30+ years, Vara’s work has won numerous awards and has been commissioned by a wide variety of museums, corporate, individual and municipal clients.
Click Here for more photos of mi Chelle, including candid shots at work in the studio!
miChelle M. Vara primary C.E.O. of Ballard Road Art Studio for more than 20 years. The Studio Gallery a 30’x 60’ building open to the public and is Located 7 miles out side of Saratoga Springs, New York.
The studio is fully tooled for sculpting, welding, machining, Fabrication, painting, airbrush, pin-striping and hand lettering.
The rural site is also her home and farm.
mi Chelle with an assistant timely produces every aspect of all projects.
miChelle’s vivacious life style offers little rest, but much visual stimulation. In turn she has never-ending ideas of one mental snap shot after another, resulting in volumes of drawings.
She continues turning drawings of life’s segments/ concepts into dimensional metal sculpture keeping an uninterrupted daily flow of many new large and small-scale sculptural pieces, in a wide range of styles and finishes.
Thank you for visiting and we will continue to bring new art to the world, so check back often.
Education
miChelle was educated untraditionally thru Montessori schooling and one on one specialists. Working to prove what dyslexia’s boundaries are, and how to over come them. Her clinical disability is crossed optic lobe. The incoming information goes in the visual part of the brain first, unlike the “normally developed brain”. She thinks it is her greatest birth gift.
1998– Modern Welding-Certified in all Positions/Types welding/brazing
1990– SC Institute-Jewelry making
1997– RIT– Blue print reading
1995– Practical welding Pete Hues
1994 Rally Rotating Shows– Airbrushed thru out the US.
1994–92 Adirondack Community Collage
1986-84– Green Mt. Blacksmithing/ hand forging/hammering tech.
1984-82-Ocean County Collage– Associates Degree Photography
1980– 81-Toms River Tech.– Commercial Art/Photography Certification
1996- Young Artist Grant.
1995 Rally Rotating Shows– Airbushed thru out the US.
1994-1993 Ocean County Collage– Toms River, NJ
1993 Grant $13,000 Art in the community sculpture project/New Jersey
1993 Ocean County Artist Guild– Toms River, NJ
1993- Toms River Technical- Outstanding Young Art Photographer Award $10,000 and 1mth residency in Chicago.
1991- NJ Outstanding Young Artist Award
1990- Cosmetology School -Certified
1981- Full scholarship to Pratt University