Check out Mia Araujo’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mia Araujo.

Mia, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember, and have always loved reading and creating my own stories. My twin sister and I grew up making art together, and went to Otis College of Art and Design, where I studied Illustration and Creative Writing, and she studied Fashion. I exhibited my work in galleries across the US and around the world for the first several years after art school, and have continued to take classes and workshops to hone my technical skills. 

I’ve recently taken on a non-creative day job to pay the bills and take the financial stress off my art, while I work on my passion project, an illustrated-novel retelling of Alice in Wonderland. I’ve shown my work for this project at art conventions across the US over the past 2 years, and won my first art award for it last year. My lifelong dream has been to write and illustrate my own stories, and each day I’m getting a little closer to making that dream of holding my own book in my hands a reality.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Fantasy and nature are two of my biggest inspirations, and I try to depict the magical connection between humans and nature in my work, as a way to encourage my viewers to reconnect with the natural world. I’m a traditional artist, painting in acrylics and drawing in pencil and ink, primarily.

I’m a huge fan of fantasy stories, but have been a bit bored of and perplexed by the default of Euro-centric worlds and characters that pervades the genre, so I seek to create worlds that I want to see more of with my work. Growing up as child of immigrants, I always felt like I existed in-between two worlds, so I’ve always been interested in seeking out points of view that challenge the main narrative that we grow up with in society. In college I began questioning which stories and points of view were consistently in the spotlight and which ones weren’t, and why. I took an African Art History class that hit me like a lightning rod of inspiration, and began to wonder why there weren’t more high fantasy stories set in non-European worlds.

This was part of my inspiration for embarking on my Alice in Wonderland project, which I’ve been slowly developing for the last several years. My reinterpretation is a sister story based in a West African fantasy world. Alice and her sister both see the White Rabbit and must each choose whether or not to follow him into Wonderland. As a sister myself, this is a very personal story, and I’ve poured my heart and soul into it. I can’t wait to share what I have in store for the final book. It will be a fully rewritten novel, with over 30 color illustrations and dozens of spot illustrations. 

How can artists connect with other artists?
A lot of artists are introverts by nature, but people skills are really that- a skill! Which means you can get better at it with practice. I used to be painfully shy, so I would force myself to go to gallery openings and talk to at least 3 new people before leaving. Soon enough, I didn’t have to force myself anymore because it became easier. Now I love any opportunity to meet fellow artists- gallery openings, art walks, comic conventions, life drawing, workshops, and in-person classes.

There are some great Facebook groups out there for art communities where I’ve made friends as well, and you’d be surprised how open and giving your peers can be about advice, experiences they’ve had, etc.

No artist creates in a vacuum. The more I’ve connected to fellow artists and made friends with artists from other fields, the more I’ve learned and grown as a person and an artist.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, I was slated to exhibit in the Artist Alley at WonderCon next month. That was the only show I had scheduled, since I’m focusing on writing and illustrating my Alice in Wonderland book this year. But now that the show has been postponed, the best ways to keep up with my work is through social media (links below) and my Patreon page, where you can support the creation of my Alice project and watch it come to life: patreon.com/miaaraujo And of course, you can support my work through my online shop: www.art-by-mia.com/shop  

Contact Info:

• Website: www.art-by-mia.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/mllemiaaraujo
• Facebook: facebook.com/mia.araujo
• Twitter: twitter.com/mllemiaaraujo
• Other: patreon.com/miaaraujo

Image Credit:
Convention photos by Kiri Ostergaard Leonard and Nara Ramanujan.

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