Michelle Tourikian earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from OCAD University in 2011 majoring in Drawing and Painting. Post-graduation she gained valuable experience and insight as a participant in OCAD University’s 2012 Florence program. Living in Florence, Italy initiated a period of rapid evolution in her work, which began with a range of paintings focused on depicting the emotional distress involved in change, displacement and mortality. Since this development, her work has continued to utilize a mixture of abstraction and figuration in order to visually represent information itself, history, technological advancement and personal spirituality. Traditional materials such as oil paint, canvas, wooden panel, paint brushes and palette knives collaborate to breathe life into this chaotic alternate plane of existence.