Michelle Bracewell is a narrative mixed media artist based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she has lived and worked for thirty years in the shadow of Pikes Peak.

She creates freestanding sculpture and dimensional wall works. Her sculptures transform found objects through clay, paint, and meticulous surface work. Her dimensional wall works combine original acrylic painting on panel with found objects that push beyond the picture plane into the viewer’s space.

Her studio is fed by a lifelong practice of hunting for unique forgotten items, that are transformed into the cast members for her stories. Objects arrive worn, discarded, and carrying the weight of other lives. Through meticulous construction and material transformation, Bracewell re-imagines them into something unexpected. Each finished piece has a written story. Each one rewards close looking.

Bracewell came to a full-time studio practice after twenty-five years running a web design agency, a transition that sharpened rather than delayed her sense of purpose. Her work has been acquired by the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum for its permanent women’s artists collection, called 50% of Creatives, as well as recognition in the press, and has won awards in national juried exhibitions.