Louise Michaels

Biography and email link

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About Me: I live in Vermont for over 20 years now. I am currently producing an animated film and recently completed a 4th children’s book for “Connecting Tanzania”. The non-profit organization requested a Kiswahili / English Vocabulary book for children. It’s now in use in classrooms in Tanzania!

I taught and mentored budding digital communicators over the past 25 years in digital development techniques for filmmaking, visual story telling, 2D animation and illustration.

In the past several years I started making clay sculpture again and functional work, some with portraiture, many with animals. Clay is a joy to work with! Some of the pieces are my homage to the many rock artists of the Lower Pecos River Valley.

My Short Films: “Secret Life of Shells”, “the Party Next Door”, “Last Night I Dreamed in Greek”, “Anarchy” and, now in production, a stop motion animation.

Feature Film: “A Work in Progress” is my film on the Socialist Labor Party Hall in Barre, Vermont, was created originally for Freedom & Unity: The Vermont Movie.  It tells the story of the vibrant community of granite workers in Vermont since the 19c. Also, an abbreviated version of it is in the 6-part film series Classroom Kit, released in 2010 by Upper Valley Arts with lesson plans for teachers. In addition to my segment, logo and web design, I also contributed creative portions to various segments of the Freedom & Unity: The Vermont Movie such as: Champlain’s story, the Civil War segment; the segment on Murray Bookchin and Goddard; Putney Perfectionists, Town Meetings, myriad animated and graphic treatments of photos and prints, animated credits, trailers and photography for the film. In 2015, I was one of two Project Leaders for Freedom & Unity TV, a new statewide youth filmmaker festival which aired several of the finalists on Vermont PBS.

My Work: Prior to moving to Vermont in 2004, I was the Multimedia Director for the New Jersey History Commission funded by a generous federal grant for history education in New Jersey. I created the website, logo and first 100 years’ media of 300 years of New Jersey history for DVD and online (requires the Flash plug-in) (NJHistory-Partnership.org). I was the Director of the Academic Bio-communications Media Department of the New Jersey Medical and Dental Schools* from 1993, and had my own studio for 9 years before that. I am very fortunate to have always been a working artist.

My Art: Some ceramic pieces are represented at Art Hound Gallery in Essex, Vermont.
They are also available online at Blue Horse Ceramic. I am grateful to have been given awards for photography and sculpture and have work in permanent collections such as the Paterson Museum in New Jersey, the Design Museum in New York, and in private collections: photography, illustrations, and design. My husband and I were awarded 1st place for our photos at City Without Walls Gallery by Sandy Skogland and our series “The Gulf” was shown and reviewed in the New York Times art section.

Contact me: at Louise Michaels, art@louisemichaelsart.com

*UMDNJ now Rutgers New Jersey Medical School