Rock Sculptress       MichelleMcCutchon

This artwork celebrates the auditory sense and invites the viewer to reflect on the beauty and power of being able to hear.

Its polished surfaces reflects light, mimicking the way sound waves resonate and flow to the ear drum.

As I sculpt out my future as an artist, I find myself in the studio with the baby monitor tuned into my children’s room.

Their giggles penetrate my heart . . . CONCENTRATE!!!!  (I tell myself out loud through my respirator).

The conflict between time on my art and motherhood is overwhelming. As if surreal, effortlessly, my baby’s face is carved out on the sculpture and “Motherhood” becomes obviously a-Parent.

I’ve experienced pregnancy twice. It felt magical knowing I was bringing a soul into the world. I knew I loved my babies before I could ever see them.

I wanted to sculpt this miraculous experience in pink soapstone as it is soft and feminine feeling.

Have you ever seen a pregnant rock? It makes pebbles that turn into boulders . . . ok lame mom joke.

Womankind symbolizes the strength I wanted to feel when faced with the challenges of motherhood. I sculpted her as therapy wanting to become stronger and stand tall like her regardless of her apparent rugged edges we endure as mothers.

Many years later I raised my children, and here I stand tall, strong, like a rock.

This sculpture reflects the essence of jazz music with improvisational spirit and spontaneity. Unpredictable flow-like melodies are seen in how the form of the rock is carved. The sculpture’s finish of shine to matt and rough rock mimics the music from polished smooth jazz to raw acid-like jazz. It invites viewers to feel the freedom and complexity inherent in this musical genre.

This sculpture was made before Michelle's sculpture "Love of Dawn".  He was made for her to be her mate.

This Haiku came to me while carving Rise of Dawn in the studio. I had no pen so I actually wrote it on the studio mirror in the thick layer of stone dust that had accumulated from the sculpture.

Haiku:

Arms stretch to sunrise,

Dawn shines in alabaster,

Passion starts to rise.

‘Love of Dawn’ is the mate of ‘Rise of Dawn’ sculpture also

created by Michelle.

He is on his knees, as he vows forever to the ‘Rise of Dawn’.

Admiring her natural beauty, he Rises every morning to his ‘Love of Dawn’.

Could this sculpture possibly be about my eldest daughter

whom I'm over-the-Moon proud of?  Most definitely YES!

They whisper and wonder, they glance and they stare.

They say she is different, she seems to not care.

With big clunky shoes, hair all a mess

Mismatched socks and a thrift store dress

They gossip and say, something is wrong.

How can she smile, skip and sing a song?

Regardless of what they see in their mind,

That difference is beauty of her own kind.

Would not change if she could.

She is Miss Misunderstood.

I was inspired to make this piece when I took the Audiometric Technician Course at BCIT, allowing to me be able to do hearing tests for staff and students.

The metaphor of Mother Nature poignantly represents the delicate balance between life and the environment in the face of global warming. The sculpture has wax drips on her showing she is melting.

The strength she once embodied is disrupted by the ravaging effects of climate change, symbolizing the earth’s cry for help.

She can no longer sustain.

A woman wanted 'Grace' for the top of her mother's urn. She said it reminded her of her mother's strength and beauty. As the stone was not suited for outside conditions, we decided to get the piece bronzed.  I kept the original.

I could not feel more honored to have my art symbolize her mother's memory.

This sculpture has five sides, each representing one of the Chinese elements—Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.

Each element is associated with specific qualities:

Wood represents growth and vitality.

Fire symbolizes energy and transformation.

Earth signifies stability and nourishment.

Metal stands for strength and structure.

Water embodies fluidity and adaptability.

These elements interact in cycles of creation and destruction, influencing not only natural phenomena but also human health, behavior, and emotions.

This sculpture is smooth and visually continuous, yet marked by a tiny rough spot, It symbolizes the complexities of marriage. Just as the sculpture appears endless and smooth, it is marked with a rough spot. Marriage is often seen as a continuous journey of love and connection. However, the small rough spot serves as a reminder that even in the most enduring bonds, imperfections exist. These flaws don't diminish the beauty of the whole, but highlight the idea that infinity, like marriage, is not about perfection but about enduring through challenges and growing stronger despite them.

Chlorite

This sculpture is smooth and visually continuous, yet marked by a tiny rough spot, It symbolizes the complexities of marriage. Just as the sculpture appears endless and smooth, it is marked with a rough spot. Marriage is often seen as a continuous journey of love and connection. However, the small rough spot serves as a reminder that even in the most enduring bonds, imperfections exist. These flaws don't diminish the beauty of the whole, but highlight the idea that infinity, like marriage, is not about perfection but about enduring through challenges and growing stronger despite them.

This sculpture represents one of the five senses, hearing.

Its polished surfaces reflects light, mimicking the way sound waves resonate and flow to the ear drum.

This artwork celebrates the auditory sense and invites the viewer to reflect on the beauty and power of being able to hear.

I was inspired to make this piece when I took the Audiometric Technician Course at BCIT, allowing to me be able to do hearing tests for staff and students.

I contemplated on how precious, sensitive and important hearing can be.  Through hearing we communicate, protect ourselves, and listen to the beauty of music and nature.

I had almost completed polishing up this sculpture when the phone rang. News from the Netherlands, a relative has Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

After a long conversation I returned to my studio to find that my sculpture had slipped off the workbench and onto the floor. Broken in half, I felt there was no hope for the sculpture.

How dare I give up I thought. I must try to make this piece survive. So I placed a steel rod between the broken pieces as a symbol of HOPE. I then mounted the sculpture on a rock that I felt symbolized 'cancer', a black jagged rock. The Ribbon of Hope remains strongly held together while standing tall on top of its cancer.

Years later the relative remains symptom free.

This sculpture was gifted to a dear mother and friend who put in countless hours assisting me to raise my children as we were both single moms of two daughters each.

I had the sculpture for sale in a gallery when she couldn't stop talking about it.

Since there was no limit to her love for my children I decided to gift her 'Random Thoughts and Core Beliefs’. She as a VERY humorous woman, and had the same 'random thoughts' as me, and her 'core beliefs' were on dime with ours so I felt she deserved this piece.

The center of the sculpture is our core (beliefs), and the 5 odd points are the random thoughts that distract and make us mothers worry at all hours.

I contemplated on how precious, sensitive and important hearing can be. Through hearing we communicate, protect ourselves, and listen to the beauty of music and nature.

The Spirit Bear, with snow-white fur, captivates the imagination, evoking a sense of mystery and reverence for nature.

This rare subspecies of the black bear, found in the lush, temperate rainforests of British Columbia, symbolizes both the fragility and resilience of the natural world. It’s striking appearance—an embodiment of grace and purity—becomes a powerful visual metaphor for conservation and the need to protect endangered species and their habitats. T

Through art, the Spirit Bear emerges as a symbol of the wild, a creature of quiet strength, poised between the worlds of myth and reality. The interplay of light and shadow across its snowy coat speaks to the delicate balance of the environment, highlighting the interconnectedness of all life.

By portraying the Spirit Bear in various artistic forms, we are reminded not only of its beauty but also of the urgent need for sustainable coexistence with the planet's most vulnerable inhabitants.

Polar bear, Semi-translucent alabaster

This stone was sculpted as a tribute to the polar bear. It shows the majestic strength of these incredible animals while also reflecting the deep concern for their survival amidst the threat of global warming. The contrast between their powerful presence and the vulnerability they face is the poignant message.

Luna, a lone wolf. 

His head thrown back in a majestic howl, as a signal of his location to find his way back to his pack.

Their howls can be heard over 16 km away across open Tundra.

People often ask me if I spray painted this boot  grey.  It is made of clay only. The laces are real leather. 

In 1995 I worked F/T as an auto mechanic. Not knowing what to sculpt, I could see my work boot sitting in the foyer.  I suppose this represented the work I was in at the time.

Little did I know it would be part of my website thirty years later.

Finding wholeness in the present moment, despite hardships.

Sufficient, requiring no external validation.

This sculpture represents one of the five senses, hearing.

As if by chance, a burl unleashed
The beauty of a fluke beneath—
A fragment of the whale’s great soul,
Rising from the water’s depth below.

My spirit drifts with whales today;
The tales they tell, a soul a day—
Old stories carved in living grain,
Where sorrow, strength, and oceans wane.

If by thought romance was there,
The tale of misfortune, lost in despair,
Still whispers through the waters below—
A call the heart cannot bestow.

The photo captures soul beneath
The deep blue sea, in all its grief;
Yet wood remembers more than film—
It holds the pulse from within.

With love for thought, now caught in form,
The whale’s great size defies the norm.
Its tail breaks through the sculpted rim—
A gesture fierce, alive, within.

It rises proud, its stride unfurled—
A mythic echo in this world.
He smashes his tail with mighty rebuke—

Not by chance, but with a grand fluke.

Author Michelle McCutchon

The artwork depicts a human head adorned with electrical components, each piece symbolizing the external, often superficial solutions applied to mental health struggles.

The components, resembling technological fixes, mirror the over-reliance on medication to address misdiagnosed mental issues, while ignoring the deeper, underlying causes.

Split in half and cracked is how the person feels.

The piece critiques how psychiatric conditions are frequently treated by masking symptoms with drugs, rather than understanding the complex, individual experiences of those affected.

The head, altered with these foreign elements, emphasizes the disconnect between real healing and the temporary fixes imposed from the outside.