Michele C. Kishita

Michele Kishita, MFA

  • Assistant Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
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Education

  • MFA, Painting (2010)
    University of the Arts (PA)
  • BFA, Painting and Drawing (1997)
    University of the Arts (PA)

About Me

I serve as the Assistant Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Widener University where I assist students in achieving their goals while fostering a safe-space environment of empathy, gratitude, respect, and belonging. I鈥檓 an idea person who asks questions and enjoys reevaluating programming and digging through data to spot trends and identify areas of improvement to develop innovative strategies that help students and faculty.

 

In my professional art practice, I explore ideas of transience, interconnection, transformation, and beauty to give voice to the tales that are silently embedded in my wood panels鈥 grain. Reflecting on its rhythmic undulations that map a tree鈥檚 annual growth and water intake, I imagine a place, an atmosphere, or a feeling that articulates the visual contrast and harmony where nature and mankind intersect. Formally drawing from the graphic stylizations and compressed spaces of Japanese ukiyo-e prints, I use hard edge abstraction and colors from nature, that are not typically considered 鈥渘atural,鈥 to capture the memory and spirit of the landscape.

In the Media

  • The Philadelphia Inquirer