Michelle MBD Briggs is a Scottish conceptual mixed media artist whose work weaves together fragments of experience, emotion, and introspection to form vibrant, thought-provoking pieces that challenge perception and evoke empathy. Her creative vision is informed by a unique combination of artistic and academic disciplines, blending her background in Adult Nursing with studies in Contemporary Art, Public Art, Psychology, and Philosophy. This fusion allows her to approach art as both a form of expression and a reflection of the human condition.
From an early age, Briggs was fascinated by how emotion could be translated visually through color, gesture, and texture. Her professional and academic experiences provided her with deep insight into human vulnerability and resilience, which now form the emotional backbone of her art. Every piece she creates invites viewers to engage not only with the image before them but also with their own inner reflections.
The Fusion of Art and Humanity
Briggs’ time working in healthcare profoundly influenced her creative practice, exposing her to the full spectrum of human emotion, pain, loss, hope, and recovery. These experiences taught her to see strength and fragility as interconnected forces, themes that continue to shape her artistic philosophy.
As a conceptual mixed media artist, she treats art as a dialogue rather than a declaration. Through the interplay of layered textures, bold brushstrokes, and symbolic imagery, she constructs pieces that encourage reflection and emotional connection. Her process is deeply intuitive, allowing each work to evolve organically as feelings, memories, and ideas surface during creation.
Color plays a vital role in her compositions. Vibrant hues pulse with life and energy, while darker tones evoke contemplation and depth. This balance of contrasts mirrors the emotional complexities of the human experience, joy intertwined with sorrow, chaos tempered by calm.
Themes of Vulnerability and Resilience
The central themes in Briggs’s work revolve around the fragility and strength of the human spirit. She explores how beauty and sorrow coexist and how moments of despair can reveal unexpected resilience. Rather than offering conclusions, her art invites contemplation, a gentle invitation to acknowledge the emotions that often remain unspoken.
Her understanding of psychology informs her ability to capture these emotional nuances. Through collage and layered imagery, she symbolizes how experiences, memories, and perceptions accumulate over time, shaping identity and self-awareness. Each layer becomes a metaphor for the mind’s intricate architecture.
The Artwork: Mourning Beauty
A vivid example of Briggs’s approach is her mixed media work Mourning Beauty (September 2025). This collage and mixed media portrait portrays a woman whose beauty radiates with color and texture, yet carries a quiet undertone of grief.
Through expressive brushstrokes and luminous tones, Briggs creates an image that feels alive with emotional tension. A single black teardrop painted beneath the subject’s eye becomes the centerpiece a poignant symbol of mourning and endurance. The contrast between the subject’s beauty and her sorrow embodies the artist’s exploration of duality: the coexistence of pain and strength, loss and transformation.
The tactile layering of paint and collage adds another dimension to the piece, echoing the accumulation of emotional experiences over time. In this way, Mourning Beauty becomes more than a portrait; it becomes a study of the human capacity to endure and evolve through grief.
Art as Healing and Reflection
For Briggs, creating art is both a personal and collective act of healing. The process allows her to explore her own emotional landscape while offering viewers a mirror for theirs. Each artwork becomes a quiet space for empathy, a visual meditation on what it means to feel, to lose, and to recover.
Her practice emphasizes authenticity over perfection. She embraces the unpredictability of mixed media, allowing each layer and texture to emerge naturally. This openness reflects her broader belief that imperfection is not a flaw but a testament to human depth and experience.
Through this lens, her art becomes a shared emotional language. Viewers are drawn not just to the surface of her work but to the feeling it evokes, a resonance that bridges individual and collective emotion.
Exhibitions and Continuing Evolution
Briggs’ work has been exhibited in various shows across Scotland, where her emotionally charged and conceptually layered pieces have captured the attention of audiences and curators alike. Each exhibition marks a step in her ongoing exploration of material, form, and meaning. She continues to experiment with new techniques and textures, pushing the boundaries of mixed media to better capture the complexities of the human condition.
Her evolving body of work reflects a constant search for new ways to translate the intangible emotions, thoughts, and moments of realization into tangible visual form. This willingness to experiment ensures that her art remains dynamic and deeply connected to the world it seeks to reflect.
A Voice for the Human Spirit
Michelle MBD Briggs’ art stands as a celebration of emotion, empathy, and the beauty of imperfection. Through her conceptual approach, she captures the spectrum of human experience, its fragility, its strength, and its capacity for transformation.
Her work reminds us that sorrow and beauty are not opposites but companions, that within every moment of pain lies a quiet resilience. By translating emotion into form, she gives visual life to what is often felt but rarely expressed, offering her audience a profound connection to the shared language of the human spirit.
