Michaela Ousnamer is a visual artist born and raised in Kansas City, currently working towards a Masters in Counseling and Certification in Art Therapy. Her primary medium is acrylic on canvas, but she has worked with watercolor, collage, photography, ceramics, and mixed media. For the last fifteen years, Michaela has worked as a self-taught artist, showing at various spaces in Kansas City as well as regularly at First Fridays in the Crossroads. She received an undergraduate Honors in Studio Art from a thesis titled “Language, Image, and the Body: Women’s Self-Representation in Poetry and Painting” that incorporated literary analysis and art theory. The project culminated in a series of self-portraits, fueling her belief that all art is a portrait of the self.

Michaela has found that creation is by nature interdisciplinary, and has brought this to the forefront of her own healing journey through art. By leaning on her confidence as an artist, she can see that two truths can exist simultaneously: “I am scared” and “I trust that I know what to do with a canvas and paint, with clay and a wheel, or even on a stage.” She believes that we’re all born with creative talent, and there is therapeutic opportunity in artistic exploration. As she continues her journey as a practicing artist and to become an art therapist, she hopes to support the inner five year old that lives in all of us by reigniting our shared love of creation.