michele bohbot - the artist
Creative and rebellious at a young age, Michele Bohbot yearned for the artistic freedom to express her vision but her conservative French family saw this desire as futile. They pushed her away from her dream and into business and law studies at the Sorbonne. The resistance from her family only fueled Bohbot’s passion to express her creative nature. While pursuing her painting in private she became a successful entrepreneur in Paris. In 1987, Bohbot left Paris with her husband Marc and three small children in search of the “American Dream.” Arriving in Los Angeles she set out on her creative journey of fashion design and through her discovery of yoga, she returned to her first love - painting. As Bohbot’s devotion to yoga grew, she found herself drawn back to the canvas, yearning to further express the spiritual connection she felt. The daily practice of yoga opened her mind to the silence of her deepest thoughts and to get in touch with her inner creative force.
Michele Bohbot has grown into a prolific creative force. She discreetly amassed a substantial body of work not seen by the general public except for her New York debut at Benrimon Contemporary, in February 2009. Her paintings are fertile with sweeping brush stokes that sumptuously grace the canvas, engaging the viewer with thought provoking questions of emotion and power. By mixing oil with vibrant dry pigments, and unconventional materials such as flour, egg yolk, or sand, Bohbot interprets color with a deep yet modern consciousness. Her work is an ongoing series of vessels and flow of energy. Within the forces of nature, each vessel is a choice that each one encounters in one’s life.
”Michele Bohbot’s tastefully abstract paintings have a conscious organic quality that encapsulates the beauty of nature in her rhythmic brushwork. When surrounded by a series of her bodacious paintings one feels they are immersed in a fibrous plant world much like a bug exploring their favorite nourishing plants. We are treated to a delicious feast of nectar like color and a pleasant feeling of light and warmth like in a dream we don’t want to wake up from.” -William Wray, Art Historian
Michele is a devoted mother of seven children, a loving wife, a successful entrepreneur, an award-winning fashion designer and founder of the Bisou Bisou empire and an inspirational Iyengar yoga instructor and owner of Namastday Yoga studio in Beverly Hills. Her art has expanded into an enormously valuable collection of work that has shown the evolution from adolescence to accomplished maturity.
Throughout Bohbot’s modern expressionist work are several themes but the foundation is drawn from the four elements – earth, air, water and fire. These four elements are the core to Bohbot’s overall philosophy and embody the psychic energy of passion, balance, love and peace. Michele has persistently labored to give direct expression and to the life fulfilling energy that is so inherent in our natural world.
MESSAGE FROM THE ARTIST
When I paint, my own energy rejuvenates itself because I celebrate a moment that to me has a bit of magical power. It is my way of communicating with the world in a very spiritual yet personal way. My discipline and method is driven by yoga and pranayama. Painting is my meditation, an action that causes my emotion to express itself with every brushstroke. I do like mixing different mediums and experimenting with new techniques. This allows me to consistently evolve and be able to refresh my message on a different level.
I consider myself a self taught, Modern expressionist artist with a design background which has tremendously influenced my strokes, color palettes and style. My maturity and wisdom through the years has brought me to a place where I feel comfortable delivering a new form of art which is at once both healing and inspiring. My best work comes from when I am feeling the freedom of a sole spirit where time and space disappears.
Initially, I began creating my collection as a way to immortalize myself in the eyes of my children and their children – a legacy that would truly reflect the woman I am. As time passed, I found myself painting more and more until there was no space left on my walls. Each period of my paintings represents my own life and the roller coaster it has been. Finding balance between family, career and passion is always at the heart of my creativity. My works can vary from dark to light, flowing from soft to bold. Each stroke carries the same powerful elements of hope and faith of the human soul.
It was recently that I made the decision to show the art world what I had spent years creating. When I see that my art moves people and touches their heart, it brings me a tremendous amount of joy and pride. My paintings and their intricate meanings speak to me. I believe that somewhere, sometime, someone will love them also.
