Art Showcase at Old Soul Alley July 9 through August 11, 2022

By Betsy Griest • July 5, 2022

Our July Art Showcase at Old Soul Alley features artists Michelle Dahl, Lisa Elias, and Victoria Tate.  Please join us for their opening art show from 4-6 pm on Second Saturday, July 9, 2022, with display continuing through August 11, 2022.

Michelle Dahl is an American artist born in Saudi Arabia and raised in Northern California.  She currently works in Sacramento, CA.  As a child of working-class parents, she had no real access to art in her early development, which sparked a passion for learning the techniques of the Old Masters.  Her professional artistic life began in middle school when she started selling Bob Ross reproductions to teachers and parents our of her 7th grade classroom.  She went on to pursue artistic training in college but left when she became frustrated with the post-modern approach which focused on theory, and the lack of structured, skill-based training.  She worked for a number of years as a self-taught artist on the side until she became disabled at 28 years old.  She returned to college to complete her Associates degree then chose to continue higher learning through self-guided study instead of university.  Her paintings have won awards, been shown in juried competitions, and currently hang in private collections across the United States.

Michelle works primarily in oils.  Currently her focus is on the contemplation of humanity through expressive personality within portraits and figures.  She uses an indirect painting technique which includes a drawing, grisaille (or dead layer), multiple color layers, and glazing to complete her paintings.  She will occasionally explore paintings in an alla prima process, where she paints wet-into-wet during a single setting.  Her current series for 2022, “100 Portraits,” primarily employs the alla prima approach.  You might notice her stylistic influences from natural realism, Impressionism, and Baroque periods. She uses professional grade oil paint and grounds, which are applied on smooth, fine-grain linen canvas or wood panels.

Lisa Elias was born and raised in Sacramento.  Lisa has been creating art since she was about three years old with the encouragement of her mother. Lisa comes from a heavy background of theater. She has a  movie enthusiast Father and is a lover of nature. Lisa as art is an extension of her but it is heavily influenced by aboriginal art and ancestral symbols.  Lisa enjoys challenging her creativity and meditating while creating her art.  She is an advocate for mental health.  She hopes to inspire healing and creativity in all those that she comes into contact with and who can come into contact with her art.  Lisa strongly believes there are no accidents.  Everything is divinely guided.

Victoria Tate learned everything she knows about art from her grandmother.  She spent time taking care of her as a young child and kept her busy with what she thought was just fun projects.  As she got older and reflected on the time she was able to spend with her grandmother, she realized she had actually shared with her key fundamentals of art.  She crossed over when Victoria was 12.  A year later when she was 13 she started painting.

As she painted more she realized not only how many of her grandmother’s words came flooding back into her being but also how passionate she is about it.  When she was 20, she went to pickup a mutual friend who asked if their grandmother (who she had never met) could come as well.  She said of course and they got into her vehicle.  What Victoria wasn’t aware of was the fact that the older woman was a medium.  Victoria started driving when the woman she had just met asked if I could lower the music volume because she was getting a message.  She assumed she meant on her phone, and I lowered the volume.

“Your grandmother wants me to let you know you’re wearing her favorite color and that she’s with you at all times.”  Victoria was wearing a yellow shirt–her favorite color.

“I feel her presence within me, it’s impossible not to.  We share the same blood and tribe.  Art is not a thing, it is a way.  Carrying the torch she passed me is my way.”