Michelle Passey

Michelle Passey is an artist based in Southern Colorado, working in acrylic, watercolor, digital art, and mixed media. Her work moves between landscapes, figures, and expressive abstraction, with atmosphere and emotion running through each piece.

Michelle trained as a multimedia illustrator in the U.S. Army and has also worked as a graphic designer. Those experiences still shape how she paints. Beneath the movement and expressive brushwork is a careful sense of structure, composition, and detail.. That training still shapes how she paints. Beneath the movement and expressive brushwork is a careful sense of structure, composition, and detail.

Her work has appeared in local art competitions in Colorado and California and was featured in the Redding Record Searchlight. In 2026, she placed ninth in the People’s Artist Competition. Her art is held in private collections across the country.

Rocky Mountain Love Story

What do I want you to see in my art?

My art is an over-explanation made visible. I like to take fleeting moments and overwhelming emotions and turn them into something that makes sense in a single moment. Like a full conversation happening in both the subconscious and the conscious all at once. Every piece hides something in plain sight, a detail that pulls you back in for a second look. There's always more to the story, which is ironic coming from someone who usually says everything she thinks, as quickly as she thinks it.

Rocky Mountain Love Story

Where do I find inspiration?

It all starts with life for me. It's the places that make me catch my breath. The heartbeat beneath it. The moment's people share and God's creations. And, the full range of being human, joy, pain, fear, and love.

I paint to hold onto joy, express the pain, and share the beautiful, unstructured way I view this world.