Michaela Soto or Mica as she is called by her friends, was born in NewYork City. Michaela is of German/Irish and Puerto Rican descent and has traveled extensively throughout the world giving her a broad cultural perspective. For almost two decades Michaela has been painting in an abstract expressionistic style with nuances of symbolism.  Michaela’s works avoids geometric abstractionism in favor of an organic emotive style. Michaela’s emotive style emphasizes the use of saturated primal colors with well defined lines. Michaela’s current focus is the relationship between humanity and Man’s best animal friend. As such, Michaela’s keen interpretation and perception of emotive states has given her a large following in animal portraiture. Michaela's animal portraiture genre is rendered in realism and as such is a departure from her expressionistic-symbolistic series of paintings. Michaela's use of realism in animal portraiture effectively captures the internal emotional dynamic and identity of the subject.

Michaela studied art at the University of New Hampshire and was graduated with a BFA degree  from Escuela De Artes Plasticas de San Juan. Michaela has been mentored by the celebrated surrealistic artist Williams Carmona and Elizam Escobar. Her exhibitions began in 2003 and a partial listing of her exhibitions include Museo de La Casa Blanca de San Juan, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico and numerous galleries throughout Puerto Rico as well as works for ballet and other theatrical use.