“SEX sells”, a photography exhibition featuring Michelle Tholen, Timothy D. Williamson, Lindsay Garvey and George Mead, presented by Michelle Tholen.
SEX sells photography exhibit at 111 Minna, San Francisco
One of 10 finalists for the SF Weekly Mastermind Grant
In Walden, Henry David Thoreau waxes eloquent about the lure of nature, including the inspiration he got from light, writing of a moment when the woods “were bathed in so pure and bright a light as would have waked the dead, if they had been slumbering in their graves, as some suppose. There needs no stronger proof of immortality. All things must live in such a light.” It’s that sort of natural light that Michelle Tholen captures in her paintings, a light that inspires even as it is presented without sentiment. In the wrong artistic hands, sunsets and waning moments of daylight can become cliché and mawkish. (See the work ofThomas Kinkade. Or try not to.) Tholen’s landscapes are timeless riffs that almost abstract the horizon — a mix between reflection and refraction.
Her work speaks to the deep connection between sky and physical earth, as in Smooth River, where a winding waterway is bathed in the falling sun that peeks from above. The division of sky and ground give Tholen’s landscape paintings an ethereal feeling and a balanced symmetry. Surprisingly, Tholen is self-taught. A San Francisco resident, she graduated with a degree in accounting in 1997 and worked as an accountant for three years before embracing painting. She found a niche in landscapes one day in 2002, after she finished a climb at Samuel P. Taylor Park in West Marin, peered at the sky, and was taken by the sheen it made on nearby water. Before that day, Tholen said she was feeling “lost” in her life. Her first landscape painting was a chance to recreate “a moment I fell in love with.” The subsequent paintings seem to capture that same momentous feeling.
By Jonathan Curiel Wednesday, Feb 8 2012
How Michelle Tholen Found Her Aha Moment
“When I learned that she was an accountant before becoming an artist, I was blown away.
I can only imagine what guts it took on her part and the self-awareness that she had to follow what fulfilled her.
Her showings absolutely pack a place. Michelle has an incredible following and I can see why. Her art is absolutely stunning.”
Suzannah Scully, 2011
“A Decade”, celebrating Michelle Tholen
Ten years of fine art for a privately held exhibit.
May 23, 2010, 6-8pm
2009, Woman-owned business of the year awards presented by Women’s Initiative for Self Employment, 111 Minna, Gallery, San Francisco
111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA
November 6, 2009, 5-9pm
Woman-Owned Business of the Year Awards, presented by Women’s Initiative for Self Employment. Woman-Owned Business of the Year Awards celebration will honor the 11 award winners who have achieved great business success and are becoming role models in their communities.
Exhibition and Silent Auction featuring Michelle Tholen, Hilary Williams, Trish Tunney, and Beverly Gilbert art. Proceeds will go to support Women’s Initiative entrepreneurship programs.
Busacca Gallery Online features Michelle Tholen
Landscapes at BIN38, San Francisco
