About the Artist:

Mikaela Zemaitis (Creative Writing and English, 2018) remembers diving into her other favorite artsy swimming pools of piano and creative writing at around nine years old; but drawing has been with her forever.  As a child she was so hopelessly in love with the art of Picasso that on one memorable birthday her father took her all the way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to see his work in person.  And although these days she favors Rembrandt and Monet, Picasso has a permanent seat in her heart.  Art to Mikaela is a language for her emotions.  Inspired by the drive to express herself, she endeavors to create pieces that are feast-worthy both for the eyes and the spirit.  Having had experience selling her work in recent years, Mikaela hopes to continue in this direction in the future — the feeling of knowing her art is in someone’s home is an tremendously warming one for her.

It was only four years ago that Mikaela began seriously experimenting with acrylic paint, the medium from which this piece was created. Now she works almost exclusively in acrylic. “In Memoriam,” in its depiction of a Hawaiian beach, has a special history for Mikaela.  In her words:

“This particular piece is one that I painted it in memory of my great uncle Mike Garafalo. He passed last year on February 27th and he was such a wonderful part of our family that when he died I wanted it to be a lie. He was the sort that was always cracking jokes, and even when you were rolling your eyes at what he said, you were still laughing all the same. Losing someone like that takes a toll on you; personally it felt like a bright light had gone out in the world. Essentially Uncle Mike knew how to live; he knew that life was living, not working. He spent the majority of his time going on trips to Hawaii. Therefore, I felt the best way to memorialize him was in a painting of a Hawaiian beach. I know he wasn’t the greatest fan of the fact that I gave Aunt Rose yet another owl painting [Mike’s house was full of owls], but I hope he’d be happy to know that I made one of his favorite place for him.”

Click here to visit Mikaela’s Facebook page, Acrylic Artistry, where you can find more of her art.

Copyright © Mikaela Zemaitis (2016) All Rights Reserved.