Art and travel have shaped Michele’s life ever since her early twenties, when she spent a year hitchhiking through Europe with a sketchpad and set of watercolors. As an art student at Northern Illinois University, she discovered the power of art as a universal language, a way to connect with people. However, it was the Caribbean that truly defined Michele as the painter she is today.

The vibrant explosion of color in nature across the tropics has been her greatest inspiration, and there is always a watercolor image that emerges in her mind as she goes about her daily life in Honduras, her home for the past 30 years.