Age: 39
Occupation: Artist Michelle Hoogveld
With more than 125 murals in her portfolio, Michelle Hoogveld is one of Calgary’s most visible artists. She has created more than 60 in Calgary, alone, including The Corridor of Connection, a 950-foot mural along the 4th Street S.E. underpass connecting East Village and Stampede Park. Completed in 2018, Corridor was Hoogveld’s first major mural in her home city, a commission she got just one month after she quit her teaching job to pursue art full-time.
Hoogveld is also making her mark outside of Calgary in a big way. In 2021, she painted the 16,750 square-foot Dazzle My Heart mural on the Le Germain Hotel in Montreal — the largest mural done by a female artist in Canada — while suspended 170 feet above the ground on a swing stage.
“For me to have gotten to where I am, I hope it can be an inspiration to anyone who wants to do something bigger than they’ve ever dreamed,” she says.
Hoogveld also did a 13,500-square-foot mural in Hoboken, N.J.; was commissioned to paint her signature heart motif across the surface of a private basketball court in Beverly Hills; and her fine-art piece, Resonance, is featured in Straat, the world’s largest street art museum in Amsterdam.
Hoogveld also uses her art to give back locally, volunteering her time to teach art workshops to children and youth at community centres. In 2016, in tribute to her late mother, who lost her battle with cancer, Hoogveld collaborated with her sisters to interview 56 families and create custom paintings inspired by their cancer journeys. The works were then auctioned off at the Skies of Hope Gala fundraising event, raising more than $200,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada.
“To give back to your community creates a connection beyond the art,” Hoogveld says.
Thank yous
“My beautiful family, Mom, Dad, Norma, my incredible sisters Stephanie, Heather and Natalie, Ryan, Kyle, and my nieces and nephews; my dear friends, Jenna Archer, Tayah Almond, Ola Volo, Patrice Lacroix, Hanna Barczyk, Nathan Percy and Mark Groves; and all the amazing clients, fans and collectors who have celebrated my artwork.”
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