Artist and Textile Artist Michelle House’s artwork can be found everywhere from galleries to NHS clinics and hotels. Michelle's vibrant artworks are as playful as they are evocative and thought-provoking and sit in the playful intersection between abstract and realistic. Bold colourful shapes layered with screen-printed textured photography results in artwork that initially grabs your attention and then invites you to look closer.

Michelle uses the camera on her phone for taking photographs of things that catch her eye when out and about, which is often where the fascinating patterns in her prints come from.

“I spot found imagery everywhere, from early morning shadows on bedroom walls, to cracked painted road markings. I’m looking for a good light and dark contrast to enable me to translate the photo into a screen for print. I often prefer it to be ambiguous, as I am using the imagery as a way of mark making.”

Michelle used a more personal approach when researching for her Collect Open 2025 installation, ‘Celebrating What Remains - (What You Stole from Me’). It focused on her mother and the Alzheimer’s she lived with for 13 years, remembering all the things she had made for her family and home.

“All the imagery in the three works I made for my Collect Open had a meaning. I spent many hours photographing and re-photographing objects from my mum’s sewing cabinet and took over 400 photographs for that project. Then many hours editing them in photoshop getting them ready to transfer to silk-screens. The colours in the work were inspired by my mother’s knitting needle collection and the memories of clothes she had made.”

Michelle’s original designs evolved as she processed the complex emotions that come with having a loved one with Alzheimer’s. Whilst their initial focus centred more on the anger and sadness, the final three pieces were more uplifting than she had anticipated.

“The work was very personal and not a subject I had made work about before. Alzheimer’s is an ongoing journey of grief, so I needed the time to process my ideas and emotions around the subject. It took me awhile before I felt ready, whilst also thinking through how I was going to make work that was respectful of my mother and was also joyful, rather than being dominated by the disease.”

The resulting works celebrated my mother and remembered all the things she had made for her family and home; our shared connection and love of textiles and my memories of the many wonderful stories attached to those textiles.”

People really related to the work and some were moved to tears. Others thanked Michelle for creating it, perhaps grateful for the art expressing emotions and experiences with loved ones that words often fail to describe.

“I also love it when people enjoy my work…I have had people say in the past that they find my work uplifting, so knowing that my work has had such a positive effect on someone is very rewarding. I know how powerful colour can be from my own experience of engaging with other artist’s work.”

Michelle has always embraced using different materials and combining mediums throughout her education and career. She painted with oils at A Level and then delved into sculpture, photography and lino printing during her foundation course. She then started to work with her preferred medium of textiles when she studied for her fine art degree at Goldsmiths. From wire sourced from the back of old TVs, and velvet curtains bought at charity shops, to stones and pieces of cardboard, anything could be used in the mark making process and creation of art.

This open-minded approach to sourcing and reusing materials was largely inspired by Michelle’s parents. Michelle’s Mum was always sewing something for the family and her father would be fixing things and finding creative solutions to problems. Both were very respectful of materials and tried to never waste things.

“Saving buttons and zips from worn out clothes to use again, or metal hinges and pipes - they would re-use, mend and re-purpose instead of throwing things away. This all rubbed off on me and I would source fabric from charity shops and second-hand fabric markets in Brick Lane whilst studying at Goldsmiths. I keep all my offcuts and have inherited my mother’s sewing cabinet full of fabrics and embroidery thread.”

With this same philosophy in mind, if Michelle can’t use something herself she will pass it on to another maker.

“Some of my dad’s tools went to a friend who is a furniture maker and I salvaged the leather from a very broken sofa and passed on to a maker who turns leather in to purses and wallets. I find that very satisfying.”

Working with colour and mixing inks is one of Michelle’s favourite parts of the creative process, alongside “lifting the screen after printing a colour, which gives me a buzz of excitement” she adds.

“Mixing the colours can take up to an hour for each one, as I constantly test on different fabrics and view in natural as well as artificial light. The colours will look different depending on the texture of the fabric. I also compare and colour match to my design and drawings. I will often have a printout of the final composition (which I use for planning the print order of colours and marking-up measurements) which in turn is slightly different to how the colours were displayed on the computer screen.” 

Michelle makes decisions during the mixing stage to ensure they all work together but one slight change to a colour will affect all the others. 

“Some projects involve mixing 22 colours of varying opacity. Mixing the colours for my Collect Open installation was tricky as it was a particularly dark and grey autumn and winter. When I wake up to sunshine, I know it is a good colour mixing day.”

After colour mixing Michelle is then rewarded with the screen printing process. She describes the joy and satisfaction she gets from a perfectly printed sharp line or watching a piece evolve as each new colour is laid down, the wet ink slowly soaking into the linen and the colour changing gradually as it dries. 

“I enjoy challenging myself technically, it is really satisfying when my idea works, and I have learnt something new.”

Like many artisans, Michelle juggles all areas of the business and creative practice herself. It’s difficult, she says, especially when there is no one else to take on the load, but she’s learning to lean on the support and skills of other creatives when she can.

“I have always done everything myself, from the photography, editing on the computer, printing and sewing, along with all marketing and website updates etc. I did pass some finished printed pieces over to a curtain maker a while back for a special commission. It was a bit nerve wracking, but also a relief that someone else was taking over for a bit. So, I really value when another professional helps me get the job done, such as a framer or my husband, who is a brilliant graphic designer.”

Besides the more fun and creative tasks, the working day also might involve dealing with art consultants on urgent orders, planning social media posts and photographing her artworks. As with her approach to art, Michelle enjoys lots of variety in her working day. She works from home so starts the day with a walk. 

“I work from home so I like to make time to get out, be sociable and exercise, I find it puts me in a much better frame of mind for the rest of the day. My hours are flexible, and I will often work late into the night and start early in the morning if I have a deadline coming up. I worked most of the weekends leading up to my Collect Open and only took about two days off at Christmas, it was very intense.”

Meditating twice a day helps get rid of the day-to-day stress and frees Michelle’s mind for more creative thought. Indeed some of her best ideas have come after a meditation session. Michelle also looks to the natural world as source of relaxation and creative inspiration.

“I’ve always liked the countryside and when on foundation would often sit in the woods near my parents’ drawing trees, so I enjoy getting out for long walks. I also love the ‘natural’ colours in plant life. My local park had some almost fluorescent flowers on display this summer in the walled garden. I regularly walk there, so love seeing the colours change with the seasons.”

Alongside her photography, Michelle also likes to use a notebook to jot down her ideas for later and an app called Freeform. It's an app like illustrator on the iPhone, and came in handy when Michelle was on jury service a couple of years ago.

"I used this and my sketchbook during the many hours of waiting. I often take a small sketchbook on holiday with me to play with colour and ideas.”

To see more of Michelle's work and follow her creative process follow her on Instagram here!