Michele-lee was Epilogue's featured artist in Art Scene International Issue #73. The online version of the feature can be viewed at Epilogue.

Michele-lee Phelan is an amazing Australian fantasy artist - her images bring to life magnificent winged beings, protective dragons, wistful sylphs and powerful witches, all of whom dwell in magical landscapes created with amazing detail and complete dedication. I wanted to talk with Michele about how she creates her art, and how her own magical belief system flows into her work...

If I had to sum it up in one word it would be 'instinctual'. If I have to label myself, then I would have to say I am pagan, but it feels like such an inadequate label. I worship Gaia, i.e. the Earth and Her cycles. I believe in a Creator that is both God and Goddess; the same, yet two unique halves of the one whole. I believe in Spirit Guides and Angels, reincarnation, and karma. I also believe in destiny and fate, but that we as individual souls are the ones who move ourselves towards or away from that destiny through the power of our choices and our actions. Some would argue that one cannot believe in free will and yet still believe that we each have a set destiny, but what if that destiny is something we ourselves choose before we are born?

There were no real defining moments when I was a small child. I thought everybody dreamed of dragons and played among the ruins of ancient civilizations. I existed in my head, in a realm of dreams and different lands for many of my earliest years. I could fly, and I could do magic. I did not understand this to be a 'point' until I was older and discovered the ruin I played in actually exists on the southwest coast of Inishmore in the United Kingdom. Now I am left with the certainty that I was either having out of body experiences, or I was remembering a place I had been long before.

The entire interview can be read in the Winter 2007 edition of Spellcraft Magazine. A signed copy can be purchased below for a limited time.