Michele Kishita, MFA

Education

• MFA, Painting (2010)
  University of the Arts (PA)
• BFA, Painting and Drawing (1997)
  University of the Arts (PA)

About Me

I serve as the Assistant Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Widener University where I assist students in achieving their goals while fostering a safe-space environment of empathy, gratitude, respect, and belonging. I’m an idea person who asks questions and enjoys reevaluating programming and digging through data to spot trends and identify areas of improvement to develop innovative strategies that help students and faculty.

In my professional art practice, I explore ideas of transience, interconnection, transformation, and beauty to give voice to the tales that are silently embedded in my wood panels’ grain. Reflecting on its rhythmic undulations that map a tree’s annual growth and water intake, I imagine a place, an atmosphere, or a feeling that articulates the visual contrast and harmony where nature and mankind intersect. Formally drawing from the graphic stylizations and compressed spaces of Japanese ukiyo-e prints, I use hard edge abstraction and colors from nature, that are not typically considered “natural,” to capture the memory and spirit of the landscape.