She received her higher education at LUCA School of Arts, Ghent. She then went on to study graphic design and ceramics at SABK. She worked as a lecturer in visual design at Artevelde University College in Ghent. Her visual work includes sculptures in bronze and composite, ranging from small and intimate to monumental. She constructs the sculptures, mostly human figures, with plaster on steel frames, which she then moulds and casts in bronze or composite. Van de Walle’s sculptures are a “still”, a frozen moment of movement. In this way, she challenges the viewer to think about the preceding or following actions. The understated charisma of her sculptures invites dialogue with the viewer and the environment. Hilde does not consider the spaces around and between the sculptures to be empty, but rather a sounding board that resonates with the intangible.