Michael Branca is a contemporary Maine artist. His preferred media and subject matter span a broad spectrum, from large fantastical oil paintings to en plein air landscapes to small conceptual assemblages. His work often addresses the human feeling of (dis)connectedness with nature, and attempts to find beauty, joy and humor in the unexpected, mundane and common.

Branca was born in Milton, Massachusetts. He graduated from Colby College and attended Temple University/ Tyler School of Art in Rome. He has been awarded residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Vermont Studio Center and Monhegan's Carina House. He teaches art at Southern Maine Community College and runs Backcountry Art Trips. His work shows regularly in prominant and obscure galleries and museums. He lives and works in Bath, Maine.

Statement: The focus of much of my work is on the struggle of the individual to find harmony in and among each of his/her worlds - the natural world, the people world, and the self world. Within each of these spheres, we sometimes feel at home but too often feel out of place. Through my paintings and mixed-media pieces, I seek to explore these relationships. My visual stories have no one plot-line, but rather are intended to evoke within the viewer some sense of my simultaneous awe and discomfort in functioning in the worlds that surround me.