michelle thomas fine art blog

To Meneka who crawls into bed dressed like a Nepali. Half because she is cold and half because she feels it is a very luxe way to fall into bed and half because her lungs are still full of Bombay-Cochin smog and cold airplane germs. One foot in the East but facing west, missing but relieved and wanting the press of a crowd but hot and bothered and pushing it away and still feeling most at home in airports.

PARALLEL Design and Strategy: an adventure I'm embarking on with the most talented @_mazizam !

Maggie and I represent an extensive network of creative professionals in a holistic approach to digital strategy. Check us out @parallel.sf // #strategy #

An honor to present with this panel of bright stars at the 2021 NAEA National Convention.

My talking points, in summary:

I'm a teaching artist with experience in the context of schools, museums, city art centers, community art making initiatives, a

Kerala Christians

West Coasts: A story for my sister

April 04, 2026 in social commentary, memory, creative non-fiction, cultural anthropology

I can almost gulp the rhythm and the lilt of spoken Malayalam; the words I can grasp here and there are sliding across my face and inside my mouth and filling the tub, filling the room, buoying me off the floor.

West Coasts: A story for my sister

December 08, 2025 in social commentary, memory, creative non-fiction, cultural anthropology

The first test said my DNA matched that of people from the general subcontinent including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Every subsequent update narrows down the geography, first to western India, then to the southwest, now a specific slice of the Malabar Coast, making it clear that from Papa with his afro to Nani with her three wisps of hair, we are actually pure Indian phenotypes. Our almond eyes are not Chinese. Our height is not Dutch. Our curls are not Portuguese.