Michelle Oconis
Michelle Oconis grew up in an underserved area of inner-city Baltimore with little access to the arts or cultural institutions. Much of her early life was shaped by instability, including being born to a very young mother who struggled with heroin addiction and experiencing prolonged abuse throughout her childhood and adolescence. Writing became a way for her to cope with her surroundings, and she developed a strong connection to literature at a young age.
Oconis was the first person in her family to attend college, where she majored in writing. While in school, she worked at a café that employed students involved in the arts, which became her first sustained exposure to artists, writers, and musicians. During this period, she began incorporating visual elements into her writing and poetry. As a college freshman, she sold her first piece of visual art, despite having no formal training in the medium.
In 2021, Oconis was diagnosed with a severe form of progressive multiple sclerosis. The illness temporarily took away the use of her arms and significantly affected her cognitive abilities, making it difficult to access language and continue writing. After her hands partially recovered, she was left with spasticity and tremors, and she was forced to leave her job. With writing no longer accessible in the same way, she returned to visual art as a means of expression. She began experimenting with paint and canvas, initially creating abstract work, but found a stronger connection to alcohol ink. She is drawn to the medium’s unpredictability, noting that while a piece may begin with a specific concept or color palette, the outcome is rarely fully controllable. That lack of precision mirrors her lived experience and has become central to her practice.
Oconis’s creative process is closely tied to the physical realities of her illness. Chronic pain and fatigue often limit her ability to work, and during those periods she focuses on recording ideas for future projects. She approaches these interruptions with patience, recognizing that the inability to create is not a matter of motivation but of physical limitation.
In recent years, she has also been researching her Native American ancestry, which has influenced her interest in nature and the spiritual realm. Her work frequently addresses the impact of illness on the body and mind, translating those experiences into visual explorations of resilience and renewal. These themes were central to her first solo exhibition, Ink, where she hoped viewers would connect with the work through their own personal interpretations.
Alongside alcohol ink, Oconis has begun working with mixed media collage on canvas. She is currently developing a series focused on the idea of a dying modern metropolis. While some viewers interpret the work as bleak, she sees it as a reflection on consequence and responsibility, emphasizing the possibility of redemption and transformation.
Across her practice, Oconis’s work is shaped by survival, illness, and recovery. She views art as a way to confront hardship while holding onto the belief that struggle does not preclude emergence on the other side. This belief underpins both her work and the perspective she hopes others might recognize in themselves.
