Michelle Tsosie Sisneros

I am a Santa Clara/Navajo/Laguna/Mission Indian woman. I live in Santa Clara Pueblo located in northern New Mexico. I began painting as a child and developed that into a full time painting career. I believe that I have experienced many downfalls as an artist and have learned through the years to overcome many of the negativities I placed upon myself. This has affected the inspirational aspect as well as the technical abilities of my art work. I paint now from my soul. The images I paint are from the people who touch my life in a profound way and the Mother Earth I live on. I paint in an abstract form because that is how I see the Mother Earth. I started writing about each painting I create as I feel there is a message to my work that I would like to pass on to those who take one of my paintings home.

I grew up on the Navajo-Dineh reservation. I felt a deep sense of vastness in my life there. The land was long and far in between the people living there. I longed to be in Santa Clara where I eventually married and raised my son. I feel a closeness in Santa Clara Pueblo where I have never felt before. I believe I am truly tied to the earth there. Two years ago I began to study micaceous clay…….. Pottery. Working with the clay has completed my search in touching and feeling the Mother Earth in a way that I cannot through my paintings. I can now paint her Earth and feel her body in my life now as an artist.