Canadian, Toronto-based pop artist Michelle Vella is known for her colourful big eye portrayals of nostalgic celebrity icons. Since childhood, she’s always been considered a talented artist. After graduating with in Fine Arts, the starving artist stigma didn't sit well with Vella’s entrepreneurial spirit. So, with that, she pursued art related careers and some not so related, allowing her to develop skills in sales, marketing and business. After 10yrs running her graphic design business RealSTUDIO®, Michelle made a career change at 50 to pursue art full-time.

Instagram propelled near instant success of her Wide Big Eye portraits on the NY fashion scene. In 2015, Fashion’s iconic designer Diane von Furstenberg discovered Vella on Instagram, asking to purchase Vella’s portrait of DVF, which is now part of Diane’s art collection at the DVF Fashion House NYC. That same year, W Magazine commissioned custom portraits of their Editors, including Edward Enninful, Fashion Editor at the time and now Editor in Chief at British Vogue. She also joined W’s annual NY Fashion Week ‘It Girl” Celebrity Luncheon to paint live portraits of such icons as Emily Ratajkowski.