Artist’s Bio

Lily Michaud is a contemporary artist and healer based in Portland, Oregon. Her practice explores the experience of and healing from gender-based violence. She earned her BA from Smith College and an MFA in Photography from the University of New Mexico. She has had several solo exhibitions, and her work is held in institutional collections across the United States. She works with photography, narrative, and the traditional female medium of fiber arts to communicate about feminism/gender equality through ancient and contemporary mythology and to contribute to progressive narratives. The current body of art she is creating, called Comfy, explores, through quilting, the imprints we carry into dreamtime or that fill our insomnia: rape culture, the lived experience of the female body, stories from times of gender equality, Sedna’s story of resurrection, maps to safer spaces, and more. 

Education

2002 MFA in Photography, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

1999 BA in Studio Art, Smith College, Northampton, MA

Upcoming Exhibitions

2026 Asking For It, a group exhibition on internalized misogyny traveling to the following Nebraska galleries: Radial Art Center, Omaha (March 5-27), Blue Cat Gallery in Wayne (April 3-May 30), Tugboat Gallery in Lincoln (June 5-27)

2026 Horse & Heart art installation by Lily Michaud, in conjunction with Sara Parker‘s dance piece, The House of Heart, at A-Wol Dance Collective in Portland, Oregon (October)

Placemaking

2019-2021 Hummingbird Street. Community building through interactive education around the magic of the natural world, and community-I organized and created a street painting design (selected by community vote). I created a little library-style interactive display box for nature education. The community painted the intersection. The focus was on engaging a diverse community with many pre-school-aged neighbors.

2011-2016 Fly Awake, the garden, Portland, OR. Prompts and activities were given to promote lucidity in waking and dreamtime. This was primarily done through small group discussions in the backyard tea garden, an interactive little library-style art space, and throughout Portland by disseminating posters and handbills to invite collaboration.

2013-2014 Beech Street Project, Urban corridor, garden, street paintings (I designed one of two intersections), seating, interactive educational resources, curb strip planting with pollinator plants, and installing little libraries. Approximately 250 local and international volunteers participated in painting, building, and planning.

Solo Exhibitions

2007 Lily Michaud, Artspace, Iowa City, Iowa

2006 Fly Awake, Muscatine Art Center, Muscatine, Iowa

2004 Spiritual Anatomy, Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa

2002 Red Sky At Night, Harwood Art Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico

2001 On Breathing, University of New Mexico Museum of Art, Jonson Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico

2000 Form is Emptiness, University of New Mexico, ASA Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico

1999 Recent Works, Hampshire College, Centrum Gallery, Amherst, Massachusetts

Selected Honors/Residencies/Publications

2026 Open Signal, Video Production Cohort, for Horse & Heart Portland, Oregon

2025 FinAbility, featured art, Freedom Quilt.

2024 Sou’wester Arts, Artist Residency, Seaview, Washington.

2023 National Center for Child Safety and Awareness Auction, featured artist.

2014 Sotokoto magazine, Ogawa, K., You Are Your City, November 2014, Tokyo, Japan, pp 28-35.

2011 Willamette Week, Best of Portland, for Fly Awake Tea Garden community space, Portland, OR

2010 New York Times, Take a Look Inside My Dream, interview regarding my work leading dream groups.

2001 Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico, guest artist.