Meet Michelle Asarch

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Michelle Asarch. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Michelle, thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.
I wish I had an adequate answer to this question – I really do. I spend all day every day with students encouraging my students to try new things, push themselves out of their comfort zones, apply for competitions and galleries, yet as soon as it comes to me and my own personal work, the little voice in my head starts to yell that I’m not good enough. I don’t yet know at which point in your career that voice goes away – is it when you make a certain amount? When you’re featured in enough shows? As hard as it is to admit, we all have to make peace with that voice, pull it over a chair, give it some tea, and get comfortable with it, as it can hinder but also humble us and show us areas we can improve ourselves in.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Hello! My name is Michelle Asarch and I’m a visual artist who focuses primarily on portraits and figures. The latest series that I have focused on is my “Kintsugi” series which is comprised of figures drawn with graphite and gold leaf that moves the viewer’s eye across the paper. We often forget the beauty and strength of our bodies which are our vessels through the world, and I love to focus on the grace of the human form and the intricacies involved. In the last few years after getting my Bachelors Degrees in Studio Art and English Literature, and my Master’s in Art Education, I have worked full time as art teachers in different charter and public schools around NYC, sharing my passion for art with others.
Since then, I have pushed myself to improve and find my style. Finding energy and passion to continue to work on my own personal work on weekends and evenings has always been a struggle, as well as the issue of thinking of myself as a “Sunday painter” as one of my professors used to derogatorily speak of. Finding the motivation and time to work on my art is a difficulty but is worth it.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The qualities that were most impactful for me were perseverance, open-mindedness and pure spite. While the first two sound expected, I have found that mixing in the third is essential for me personally. For instance, I recently took a class that I had signed up for in order to improve in a specific area of my drawing. After showing my starting point, the instructor laid into me tons of negative feedback to tear me down. My first instinct was to shut down, never return to the class, and pretend the experience had never happened. But after about 3 hours of this class, I decided to prove her wrong. I spent 6 hours between those two classes working on one of the best portraits I’ve made to this day, out of purse spite and to prove that I know what I’m doing (and to battle of that imposter syndrome in my mind) and I’m glad that I did.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
Visual Intelligence by Amy E. Herman is one of the books I think I gained the most from (coming from someone who read 65 books in 2023 alone.) The book talks about how we function every day on autopilot and that we each need to slow down and study the visual information in front of us as opposed to what we think we are seeing. I think about this book and the exercises it included often.

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