Personal Biography

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Michelle was born in Canada, BC, Vancouver area in 1971. Her parents emigrated from the Netherlands. She grew up bilingual in a traditional Dutch home with strong traditional Dutch culture know as Calm, Cleanliness and Routine (philosophy of Rust, Reinheid, en Regelmatt, by Sien van Hulst).   Combining both cultures her art is influenced and reflects the rich Dutch art history and classic European sculptors.

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Her professional background is a merge of medical science, and industrial mechanics.

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Directly after high school, she attended Psychiatric Nursing School for three years. This medical training provided her with a scientific understanding of the human anatomy and the psyche, which later allowed her to master the realistic forms and emotional depth found in her figurative rock sculptures.

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She subsequently became a Red Seal Journeyperson in Auto Mechanics. Her experience repairing vehicles, welding, and using pneumatic tools-such as grinders and dremels-granted her the technical skills required to carve challenging materials like marble, jade and granite.

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​Michelle works with soapstone to the harder rocks of marble, granite and even quality gemstone jade. The sizes range from pendant 1 inch size to about 5 feet in height weighing roughly 6000 lbs. (3 tons)

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She is a self taught artist.  Her first sculpture (shown below), is of a reclining nude female, 41 lbs. Brazilian Soapstone, 24 inches long.  She carved it with ease, no guidance, never carved rock ever, and was unsure how it all transpired.  It took five days of working in her garden shed.  After that she decided to pursue more carving and joined art shows and contests.

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