Michael Eble was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He received a BFA degree in painting from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a MFA degree in painting and drawing from the University of Mississippi, in Oxford, Mississippi. He is currently Curator of Exhibitions, Events, and Engagement for the College of the Arts at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He also serves as Project Manager for the art subscription service BARE WALLS in Lafayette, LA. In 2016, Eble relocated back to Louisiana from Minnesota where he was an Associate Professor of Studio Art and Curator of the Edward J. & Helen Jean Morrison Gallery at the University of Minnesota, Morris for thirteen years. Eble has shown his paintings and works on paper in numerous regional and national solo and group exhibitions, most recently in Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin. Eble was recently awarded a Artspark Grant from the Acadiana Center for the Arts, he has also been a recipient of several awards and grants from the University of Minnesota and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Michael continues to produce abstract paintings that focuses on environment, mapping, and place. ARTIST STATEMENT – 2021 Eble produces paintings and works on paper in the form of abstracted topography, through the process of layering abstracted shapes, color, and line. Eble’s work serves as a an atlas that records his responses to place and experiences, providing him with a clearer understanding of the world around him. The linear striations, meanders, motifs, and repetition of form continue to refer to land, water and maritime cultures, but also serves as his invented language. His creative practice is based on a process of exploration, play, and intuitiveness. Recently he has introduced the technique of college in his painting practice. The immediacy of color in the form of painted paper, commercial cardstock, or found paper provides a less rigorous method to the hardedge painting process of previous works. Much of his imagery is derived from invented shapes and biomorphic forms, but additionally, global positioning data, cartography, mid-century design, maritime design and travel continues to inform new directions in his work. These visual meditations conjure ideas of place and history, beauty and loss, time and transformation. It is through his artwork that he encourages viewers to become visually aware of their own environments and begin to contemplate their relationship within those environments.