Sunflower Study

Artist Statement

Olivia Michka is an artist born and raised in Midtown KCMO. Her art consists mostly of oil paintings of landscapes, florals, and still lifes, recognizable for their loose brushstrokes and bright colors. She looks for ways to surrender control of the artistic process to nature and her materials, and likes to imagine herself as the apprentice in nature’s workshop. By adding steps to her art making process, Olivia slowly removes her art from reality into abstraction, imagination, and memory. She likes to let her watercolor paints blend together when painting studies in the field, she traces the shadows of plants onto her canvases, and she presses flowers from her neighbor’s yard to add to her binder of inspiration. Outside of her art, Olivia is also an elementary school art teacher at Académie Lafayette here in Kansas City.