Peter W. Michel was born in Schenectady, New York.  He received his A.B. degree in Fine Arts from Oberlin College in Ohio and a degree in architecture from M.I.T. in Cambridge, MA.  He pursued further studies in sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts School and Rice University in Houston, Texas.  Michel has worked as an architect in Boston, Houston and New York.  In 1986 he moved to Clinton in upstate New York and began to do computer drawings for architects in New York City, including the office of Pei Cobb Freed.  In 1989 he began to use the computer as a tool to produce his sculpture.  Mr. Michel's most recent work has been cut from plywood or metal using computer controlled cutting technology (either water jet or laser) and then it is typically painted with the rainbow colors.