About Mick Michel

Half Dutch, half Belgian, I’m now based in Altea, Spain. My creative path started early, working in theatre and film design in Antwerp, before studying at HKU University of the Arts Utrecht and earning a Master’s in Art from the University of Portsmouth.

For over 25 years, I worked as a freelance creative director for agencies across Europe. Along the way, I co-founded Confituur and Mick + Wout, one a creative studio in Antwerp, the other a nomadic design practice. I also co-directed KUNST, a contemporary art gallery in Sitges, near Barcelona. Throughout, I stayed close to art, though my own studio practice remained mostly in the background.

That has changed.
Now, in my late 50s, I’ve made a conscious decision: to stop working for others and return to the studio full-time. Not to chase success, but to reclaim a sense of fulfilment and purpose. To make work that is honest, alive, and uncompromising.

My focus is on form, colour, and texture, foundational elements that continue to surprise me. In a world that claims to celebrate diversity, artists are still often encouraged to fit into neat, sellable boxes.

I resist that. My creative practice is deliberately open-ended, driven by curiosity, instinct, and material, where no subject or medium is off-limits.

I Create Pieces | A Visual Journal

An ongoing investigation into materials and techniques, through art and design. I dive deep, into art history, creative books, philosophy and the human condition

Each piece I make will become a small visual story, tied to a moment, a memory, an emotion, some happy, some heavy. They’ll reflect on life, the world, the human condition, philosophy. But I also leave room to let the material speak for itself.

At one point, I’ll gather the insights, methods, and reflections into a book, a kind of personal opus of making.

I give myself time. This is not a race. I just want to create.
Each object is a step in one long, quiet narrative.