There’s no bond like that of a mother and her daughter. Still, for Michelle and Carrie Boerio, that connection goes even deeper.
The Boerios are artists. Daughter Michelle, a graduate of The Ohio State University, paints with thick and heavy brushstrokes, weaving in pieces of found objects to create masterful collages rich with color and full of hidden meaning.
Carrie, a self-taught artist, dabbles in watercolors, acrylics and oils to explore color and nature with joyful sweeps of her paintbrush. Though their styles are wholly unique to themselves, the Boerios’ artistic journeys have been intertwined since the beginning.
Carrie was involved in art classes as a child when she was growing up in Pittsburgh, but as she grew older, other priorities such as academics and sports took precedence. She pursued communications in college and worked for nonprofit organizations. It wasn’t until her daughter, Michelle, began taking courses at Columbus College of Art and Design that Carrie found her way back to art.
“I got back into art because Michelle liked it so much as a kid,” Carrie says. “When I would drive her down to CCAD, they had these adult classes. So, I’d take her to class, drop her off and go to my class.”
After Michelle graduated from OSU with a fine arts degree, she pursued a master’s degree and began teaching at the Columbus Museum of Art. This time, it was Carrie who inspired Michelle to take the next step in her art career.
“Mom had been getting back into making art and becoming really serious as an artist. Then, all of a sudden, she went full-time as an artist, and I was like, ‘OK, wait a minute. That looks fun,’” says Michelle. “So I got to follow her lead in some parts of my career. So just being able to go back and forth with, who started doing what and who’s following who?”
Despite their different creative styles, the Boerios often find themselves showing art at the same galleries, and in the same shows – even ones that are hosted outside of Pickerington.
“Part of what I love about some mother-daughter shows is that it’s fun to compare and contrast. A lot of the times, Mom and I will have paintings that we’ve painted from the same place at the same time and then still get to see just how completely different our viewpoints were of that same moment in time,” says Michelle. “I can compare and see, this is where we were both really into painting at Lincoln Ponds, or this is the time when, for some reason, neither of us had the right green, so we both had to do something different.”
Both Carrie and Michelle draw inspiration from nature and color, creating artwork that explores exactly what they’re most curious about.
“I think about stained glass when I’m painting, like the way light comes through the colors and how brilliant and clean that is,” Carrie says. “That’s what I’m trying to go for with my paintings, pieces of really radiant color that make up the world as I see it.”
“The thing that drives me most is curiosity, and especially curiosity with nature,” Michelle adds.
One of the best parts about painting in Pickerington are the interactions with neighbors and community members.
“The neighbors around us come to everything. They support everything we do,” Carrie says. “When we’re having a gallery show, they’ll just show up and they also commission paintings. It’s just been a really lovely place to live. I can go out my yard and paint, and all the neighbors will want to see. It’s been really fun.”
Carrie Boerio
Carrie and Michelle spend a lot of time outside. In addition to painting in their backyard, Pickerington parks are some of their favorite haunts.
“What Mom and I do usually is, any time it’s nice out, is we’ll go and paint outside in a park,” Michelle says. “In a really big way, Pickerington has been a real practicing ground for where I paint and a great place for Mom and I to make art together as well as connect with our neighbors.”
Though there’s no place like home, the Boerios enjoy traveling and creating art abroad – before the global pandemic, of course. With eyes primed for color, beauty and new perspectives, both artists look to new places for inspiration.
“A lot of the things that I love about having learned to paint is that it makes you come to your senses,” says Carrie. “You stop rushing around and just really get immersed in the moment, and you’re really present. I think that’s a thing that happens when you travel.”
Michelle Boerio
Michelle spent time living in Siena, Italy, as part of a post-baccalaureate program. Some of the artwork she made while abroad is on display at the Accademia dei Fisiocritici in Siena.
“That kind of living somewhere long enough to start to know a little bit, enough to know how much you don’t know about that place, really just made me even more interested about making art about it,” Michelle says.
Despite the decrease in business due to the pandemic, Carrie found a silver lining in the abundance of time she found herself with during quarantine.
“A lot of my commission work stopped. Everything came to a standstill,” says Carrie, “and so I spent that time making what I wanted to make, just making original work. It’s been weirdly very good for me.”
What Makes a Blue Whale, by Michelle Boerio. "My current favorite painting is from last year. It’s this large acrylic and collage mixed media piece called What Makes a Blue Whale,” Michelle says. “The animal that’s the largest current living animal, possibly that’s ever lived, we just don’t actually know that much about. I wanted to make this work of art where we could see part of a blue whale and get the idea of a blue whale, but we would never be able to completely see it.”
Radiant Spring by Carrie Boerio. “Michelle and I went to Chestnut Ridge to paint in the spring. It was during COVID, and the apple blossoms were blooming on this tree at the beginning of the path that we always take,” Carrie says, “and I was just so happy that winter was over. I’m so happy that there was some color. It was when I started to really explore my own style. I just love the way the painting (Radiant Spring) turned out.”
Michelle offers advice to any artist: create what you want and show your own unique perspective through your creations.
“There’s really no one way to make art. We’re mother and daughter, literally some of the same DNA, some of the same influences and places we’ve been, yet a lot of the times we’re coming up with very different ideas of what we would like to make or what kind of art comes out of our hands,” she says. “Everyone’s got such a different perspective and different things that they can bring to their art.”
Follow along Carrie and Michelle’s art journeys and support their art online at www.michelleboerio.com and www.carrielaceyboerio.com.
Sarah Robinson is a contributing editor. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
