Michael and Marcia of Studio Michaelino are photographers and organic gardeners. They work en plein air to capture compositions created from the urban garden. The husband-and-wife team calls their medium “organic collage.” Studio Michaelino’s artworks have appeared in newspapers and on magazine and seed catalog covers. Images from the series “Celestial Vegetables “and “Petal Pointillism” have appeared on CBS Sunday Morning® dozens of times.
Homegrown Technique
Each of the artists’ images begins as an ephemeral still life installed in their backyard open-air studio. Every subject is handmade using layers of homegrown vegetables, flowers, seeds, and found items such as bark and broken pots. Working individually to express personal visions, Marcia and Michael also combine techniques for collaborative works. As lifelong gardeners, Marcia and Michael begin their yearly cycle by perusing catalogs from across the world. The artists then select and grow heirloom and open-pollinated varieties of underappreciated beauty in terms of color, pattern, and form. The canvas of their harvest is supplemented with wildflowers and perennial foliage. By saving seeds for the following spring, their art is regenerative.
Visions of Ecotopia
Studio Michaelino’s art is an appreciation of Earthwise sustainability. The artists create abstract imagery and depict fantasy realms inspired by Ecotopia. which is an imagined green society based on sustainable ecology. The natural world can no longer be separated from changes forced upon it by civilization. The quality of all life is inexorably bound to the future of all species. One goal of Ecotopia is to manage environments with reverence rather than exploitation. The artists’ reverence for their garden and our planet resides within their photographs.
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