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Michelle "Mike" Ochonicky is an award-winning artist whose work includes murals, drawing, illustrations, sculpture and photography but, for the past thirty years, she has carved herself a reputation as a master of the early American art form of scrimshaw. Ochonicky graduated with a degree in art, with an emphasis on sculpture, from Fontbonne University in St. Louis, Missouri. She first started carving when her father, who collected scrimshaw, suggested she give it a try. For Ochonicky, it was the perfect medium to combine her love of art and history. Additional graduate studies in a variety of mediums continued to enrich to her work, giving it a distinct style. In the late 1700's and early 1800's sailors created scrimshaw as a way to pass time on long whaling voyages. Intricate pictures were etched using only a pocketknife or sail needle. Today, animal protection laws ban the importation of ivory whale's teeth or elephant tusks. Instead, Mike Ochonicky's award winning scrimshaw has been selected thirteen times by Early American Life magazine for the prestigious Directory of Traditional American Crafts. The Directory has been used for the past two decades by curators at living history museums, owners of traditional homes, and motion picture producers for finding artisans to make period-appropriate furnishing and accessories for displays, collections and use. "The judges look for authentic design and workmanship, whether the piece is a faithful reproduction or the artist's own interpretation of period style," said Tess Rosch, publisher of Early American Life. "Scholarship, as well as use of period tools and techniques is particularly valued in this competition."One goal of the Directory is to help preserve traditional American crafts, part of our culture that is rapidly being lost in the digital age. Many of these skills were passed down from master to apprentice for hundreds of years, but now few new people choose to learn and master them, "If our traditional arts are lost, we have forgotten a part of who we are as Americans," Rosch said. "The Directory is a source for collectors and historic museums eager to own fine, handcrafted, period-accurate objects and a means of supporting those who perpetuate the art forms that are such an important part of our nation's heritage," Rosch said. Purchased by collectors worldwide, her work has been the subject of published articles, radio and television programs, including KMOX-radio; KSDK, KETC, STL-TV in St. Louis; and KOMU-TV in Columbia. Her scrimshaw is on permanent display in the Missouri Governor's Mansion as well as in private, corporate, state and university art collections in the U.S., Europe, Asia, South American, Africa and Australia. Ochonicky is a former three-term president of Missouri Artisans Association, better known as The Best of Missouri Hands (BOMH). She is currently the Executive Director of this statewide group dedicated to promoting Missouri artists. In addition to her scrimshaw, Ochonicky's work in other artistic mediums have gained recognition. The Dedalo Museum of Contemporary Art in Abruzzo, Italy recently acquired two of Ochonicky’s etchings for its permanent collection. Missouri's Secretary of State awarded Ochonicky's photography first place in statewide competition and selected that work for publication in the Official Manual of the State of Missouri, 2005-2006. Her illustrations can be found in books such as Missouri Life's Lewis and Clark: Journey Across Missouri, on the covers of Eureka, Missouri: Sesquecentennial and of The Wednesday Club CookBook. Ochonicky designed the first in a series of collector ornaments for the city of Eureka, Missouri as well as a scrimshawed one in the Cedarhurst Commemorative Ornament series for the Mitchell Museum in Mount Vernon, Illinois. Ochonicky's work as an arts advocate is recognized throughout the state of Missouri. As Arts Editor for The Healthy Planet magazine, she is closely connected to the local arts scene as she writes her monthly ARTful Living column, with readership of 90,000. She is as an experienced educator on all levels, inspiring her students to stretch their abilities. Actively involved with the Partners In Education program, she brings supplemental art and art history classes to elementary schools in Missouri and Illinois. She frequently presents programs on the history of scrimshaw, her chosen artistic focus.
Stone Hollow
Scrimshaw Studio
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Ochonicky uses cow bone or horns, deer antlers, ostrich and emu eggs, fossilized ivory and manmade polymers with the look and feel of ivory. She has even etched on tagua palm tree seedpods. As a result, Ochonicky has received recognition as an environmentally conscious artist, most recently as an invited speaker at St. Louis Community College’s Eco-Festival, St. Louis Archdiocesan School District’s Recycle-Art Seminar, and for the Teaching Artists Program (TAP) at University of Missouri-St. Louis. Like the sailors, she uses no patterns, stencils, transfers or power tools. 
Each piece is truly hand-done and original. Working from her tiny Stone Hollow Studio deep in the woods near Eureka, Missouri, Ochonicky's subjects include the very traditional nautical themes along with the wildlife she loves so much. Her classical sculpture-based skills infuse her scrimshaw with a three-dimensional quality, making the images appear alive.
Her most honored invitation came from the Archdiocese of St. Louis in 2000 when she was asked to exhibit twelve pieces of her scrimshaw inside the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis as part of the Contemporary Sacred Art exhibition, one of only eight invited artists. 
