When Michelle Kondos was a senior at Bennington College in Vermont, her advisor told her something no aspiring artist ever wants to hear. “I had a bad experience toward the end of college with my main advisor there, who told me that I had zero talent and no hope of ever earning a living as an artist,” Kondos says. “When I left school, I was so discouraged by this that I didn’t paint for about four years.”
Kondos’ academic career was full of ups and downs. The curriculum at Bennington College focused on abstract art, leaving her unsatisfied, because she wanted to paint realistically. During her junior year, however, she was reenergized when she traveled to London and visited museums and learned about art history. At one point she was invited to the back of The National Gallery, where she got an up-close look at works by English landscape artist John Constable.
“They let us go in there, and we could put on white gloves and open up drawers and look at old prints and old drawings, paintings on paper by John Constable,” Kondos says. “That was really great; I got a lot out of my junior year in London.”
Read the full article in the March/April 2026 issue.
Sun Salute
oil
24″ by 30″
The Fire Dream
oil
30″ by 40″
