Hello, my name is Michelle Mondragon.
I am a photographer, designer, and teacher.
One of my primary interests is still life photography.
Throughout my adult life I’ve been a collector of objects. Almost all of the things I have collected over the last 30+ years were discarded by others or are remains of a life from the natural world. Each object, be it man-made or natural, has a story. Their stories are rich and varied. Some scream it out, others are barely a whisper. All want to be heard.
I follow my intuition and listen to those stories as I arrange all the pieces. While the final placement of each object is deliberate, the choosing of what to pair together is much more organic. My job is to gather them together and give them a stage.
When I’m not arranging and shooting still life I enjoy nature and abandoned places. Nature for the sheer mystery of how it all came to be. Abandoned places for the history, either factual or the narrative my imagination creates.
In my creative process I combine the digital and organic art worlds. So often times I overlay and composite hand painted textures with the digital images. This allows me to take both painting and photography to a different place. Places that are grounded in reality but reach ever so subtly for other worlds.
