Michele Bowler left her Illinois hometown to obtain her MFA at the Otis Parsons School of Art and Design in New York City, followed that with a career in fashion in LA., and finally came to Carson City, where she and her husband raised their children. Now retired from the fashion business and with her children on their own, she works part time in the family business. However, when she can make the time, she draws a variety of subjects, from animals to people to objects, on anything that will take her mark.

Months before an upcoming show, Michelle will gather images from the photos she or her family have taken, get her subject idea, and then decide which to use of her favorite media: pastels, colored pencils, and other dry and wet media. The presentation of her work is a whole other challenge. First, there is the framing and archival matting and non-glare glass…all of which is an expensive but necessary part of protecting her medium from the elements and allowing it to be seen at its best. Secondly, Michelle insists on archival prints of her work when reproducing, so she invested in her own archival printer.

Michelle discovered the NAA Gallery by chance when she saw an Art Call for the 2022 Nevada Day Show in Carson Now. While she and her family had lived within the community for a number of years and had attended events at the Brewery Art Center, she like many other folks, had not noticed the gallery.  With the NAA Gallery’s front entry at the edge of a parking lot instead of a street, it’s easy to overlook.  Michelle is very active in the NAA organization now as a board member,  membership chair, and an integral part of the show change crew.