-Blog-

Guatemala Adventure

November 29, 2022 I recently returned from 3 weeks in the mountainous region of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. Half my time there was spent in volunteer support of international organizations developing potable water projects for small Mayan villages. The other half I spent  with my friend and well-known abstract artist, Clemens Luhmann, at his residence and studio overlooking Lake Atitlan and several extinct volcanoes. It was a wonderful experience learning and collaborating together and several paintings I produced there can be viewed on my “Abstraction” page. I found myself pushing into a more abstract painting style than I’ve previously used-…

ClimateCultures mention

Climate Cultures is a global network of over 150 artists, curators and researchers who use this online forum to share their responses to our climate change induced planetary predicament.

Solar Flow

October 27 As I began to build the imagery in my most recent painting, Solar Flow, I was thinking of renewable energy, and in particular, solar, wind and water power- with solar the penultimate powerhouse and wind and water modified by its primal source of energy. I was in a deeply meditative state as I completed this work and I felt myself expressing the flow of the sun’s light, warmth, and even its gravitational pull on myself and my painting.

Summer Dreams

Sept. 13 Lately I have been having vivid dreams about a particular steel-hulled sailboat, namely, The R/V Marie Tharp- a 72-foot, steel-hulled, 2-masted sailboat operated by the Ocean Research Project (ORP).  My two latest wax-based paintings, “Dream Sailing” and “Greenland Summer” were inspired by these dreams and the men and women presently onboard conducting vital climate-related scientific research, currently off the coast of Greenland.  Both paintings, seen below, can also be found on my ‘Abstraction’ gallery page. As a member of the Board of Directors of ORP, I often think about our crew and the international group of scientists on…

“No Resistance”

June 10, 2022 With “No Resistance”, my 12th and final wax-based painting in the “Our Changing Planet” series, I present a glimpse of our future world facing newly discovered invisible threats that are emerging from recently exposed arctic soils. The melting of the North and South Poles is one of the most well-known consequences of climate change. Scientists are concerned that within the great diversity of bacteria held in the melting ice and exposed soil are “ancestral genes” and bacteria that may cause diseases from which we have no resistance to, and that even our strongest antibiotics will not protect…

Recent Additions to “Our Changing Planet”

June 3, 2022 Two recent additions to my series “Our Changing Planet” are “Clear-Cut” and “Coral-Reefs”. “Clear Cut” depicts a previously healthy forest now devastated from both clear-cutting all the trees and the understory vegetation. Clear-Cutting is a method of harvesting lumber that indiscriminately destroys entire wooded ecosystems and obliterates the natural habitat of endangered wildlife. This process also reduces biodiversity which leads to harmful sedimentation and nutrient leakage into nearby streams and rivers. My other recent piece in this series, “Coral-Reefs”, illustrates the tragic loss of this essential ecological treasure and one that roughly 25 percent of ocean-based fish…

Get a Free Print of One of My Paintings

May 18 2022 “I am committed to practicing Charitable Art” In the latest development of my growing commitment to the “charitable art” concept,  I am now offering free prints of my art to anyone making a charitable donation to one of the organizations I support.  As part of a special, limited arrangement, anyone who makes a new donation to one of these charitable organizations will receive, at no cost, a high quality canvas print of any painting in these galleries on my website: Our Changing PlanetAbstractionFlowers By simply making a direct donation to any one of these vital and reputable…

Discover Europa!

March 3, 2022 Imagine the year is 2122. One hundred years into the future. Space vacationers can now take a submersible cruise through the below-surface ocean on Jupiter’s smallest moon, Europa. It’s an icy environment rich in bioluminescent sea life and strange alien creatures. The travel pamphlet for this tourist destination might look something like this:

Portrait of a Cow

February 24, 2022 My latest piece in the ‘Our Changing Planet’ series is simply named “Cow.” It is a quizzical portrait of the animal’s face, seeming to ask you to consider the environmental impacts of our food production processes. I don’t mean to imply that raising animals on traditional, family owned, small-scale and sustainably operated farms is an issue. Rather, it is the huge multinational firms practicing intensive animal farming on a massive scale that are producing a significant amount of the methane gas proven to increase global warming.

New Series – “Our Changing Planet”

January 20th 2022 – Earlier this month, just after the calendar flipped to 2022, I decided to broaden my artistic range of subjects and create a series of large, wax-based paintings on poster board. I call this series “Our Changing Planet” and will be adding 6 new works to the existing 6 over the next several months in a new section of my art website.  The series started with an expressionistic piece called, “Dragonfly Sunset” which provides a glimpse of just one of the large number of “indicator species” that have witnessed significant losses of population. Next was “carbon vault”-…

New ‘Reflection’ Piece

December 31, 2021 – The latest addition to my “reflection series” is called “Blue on Black.” In this, my first socially-charged painting, I convey my sense of frustration and despair over one particularly violent aspect of oppression in our society and one shared with many people united across a wide and divisive spectrum of opinions.

BVI Dreams

12/25/2021 – I recently returned from a sailing adventure in the British Virgin Islands (BVIs). The wind, water, light, coral reefs, and islands generated vibrant dreams as I slept each night on the boat-as it moved around the anchor line and gently rocked in the protected cove we moored within. This painting represents my BVI sailing experience- with its green pyramidal hills and semi-submerged boulders, multi-colored waters ever changing from sunrise to sunset, and the peaceful sense of sailing along the rolling seas. I left a few small portions of the mirror exposed, to allow reflections to both generate movement…

Tahitian Delight

11/15/ 2020 – “Mataiea Floral” is the latest addition to my ‘Reflection Series’ -all pieces in this series are made by painting on framed mirrors which I find and repurpose from people discarding them locally. ‘Mataiea’ has a deeply scrolled frame and I used melted wax on the mirrored surface.  It represents the flowers I imagine Gauguin might have enjoyed and been inspired by during his visit to the community of Mataiea on the French Polynesian Island of Tahiti.

Video – Using Glass Markers

‘Upcycling’

Nov. 12th: As I kick off this blog, I thought I might share how I get the mirrors used in making new pieces for my “Reflection” series. I find unwanted household mirrors locally by searching a 12 mile radius on FB Marketplace for “free mirror”. Amazing what unique things I find nearby- yesterday I picked up 2 wood framed high-end mirrors -one very large and the other small, but with an intricate Balinese scrolled frame.  I also obtain much of my colored wax this way as well – typically from large, unused candles. So basically I’m ‘upcycling’ discarded household items…

Welcome!

November 2021- Welcome to the official launch of the Michael Gresalfi Art website! Here you can check out the galleries featuring Michael’s multimedia painting series and learn about his distinctive techniques and philosophy of ‘Charitable Art’. This website will be displaying all of his most recent work, both ‘for sale’ and ‘sold”, as well as news and updates related to his work and charitable activities. Please feel free to share links to the site and sign up for updates so you don’t miss anything!