Born and raised in Niles, Illinois, I am currently an artist, mother of two, Associate Director and Associate Professor of Art at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA. I work primarily in clay; figuratively, functionally and symbolically - although I welcome any opportunity to draw or work in other mediums. Please visit the pages on the site if you would like to read artist statements related to any specific body of work- or for a more in-depth BIO, please scroll down.....

Image of installation of Blood, Sweat and Tears series, 2016

Mikey Walsh

Artist Statement

The permanent nature of ceramics lends itself to containment of many sorts. My works contain divergent qualities; sweetness and sadness, lightness and weight; tangible reminders of life's plain and simple joys, as well as life's bittersweet attendants – impermanence and loss. An ice cream cone, a gift bow, an old stuffed toy or the temporary moment a bird alights upon a snowball; each image made permanent embodies an ephemeral quality I seek to capture and hold still for.

I’m influenced by poetry, where relationships between words/images shift and coalesce in such a way that something fresh or exciting is felt; what once felt common suddenly feels uncommon, what initially appeared ordinary strangely moves us. If, for a small moment, a configuration of objects I have arranged can be held onto as meaningful in a similar way- my work has achieved its aim.

Michaelene Walsh

BIO, 2019

Michaelene/ Mikey Walsh received her BFA in Crafts from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign and her MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, NY in 1995. She has held teaching positions at Massachusetts College of Art, the University of Georgia, the University of Washington, Virginia Commonwealth University and U-C-Davis in addition to summer instructing at Haystack School of Crafts, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Arrowmont and Santa Fe Clay. Currently, Mikey is an Associate Professor of Art at Louisiana State University and the Associate Director of the LSU School of Art. Mikey has been the recipient of two Louisiana Division of the Arts Individual Artist Grants. Her sculptural and functional ceramic work is exhibited internationally and is also featured in the publications The Figure in Clay by Lark Books, The Human Figure in Clay by the American Ceramic Society and her work is recently installed in a public commission at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, LA. Having traveled widely in her younger years to such places as Japan, Europe, China, Mexico as well as all around the US, she now lives in Baton Rouge. LA with her husband, two children and two very old dogs.