Today we’d like to introduce you to Mia Tavonatti.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Growing up in an artist family, I was one of the lucky ones. Despite all the times I was told “you can’t make a living as an artist” or “take French, don’t take art, it’ll be better for your future”, and how many detours I would take as a result, I eventually discovered what I was meant for, to be an artist and teacher, just like my dad.
By age five, I enjoyed the benefits of having a father who was a popular teacher, endearingly nicknamed Mr. “T” by his students. He taught high school art in Pulaski, Wisconsin, and his tenure there afforded me the luxury and freedom to wander the halls with the “big kids”. I loved watching him in his basement classroom amidst the paintings, drawings, sculptures and ceramics. This was my first exposure to the artist studio, and I can still remember the smell. I was hooked, and from that time forward I dreamed of being an artist in New York. Of course, I had never been to New York or painted, except with my fingers, but I didn’t care.
Back then, my dad was an inspired and ambitious painter himself, and the details of a large futuristic collage piece hanging on our living room wall, across from a black velvet painting by a lesser artist, aided my appreciation for art.
By the time I was eight, I had my first job cleaning my parent’s art store, Tavonatti Galleries. I dusted plaster molds, art supplies and handcrafted gifts while my parents taught art classes in the back room. Every Saturday, I would work, eat lunch with my mom at the counter of Ben Franklin’s and then catch the matinee at the Braumart Theatre next door. I started to collect movie posters, which were my first glimpses of Illustration, and eventually my field of study. I copied the art of Raging Bull and Excalibur religiously with the pastels my dad gave me for my tenth birthday.
I opened my first savings account at eight. Little did I know that the first time I would tap into that nest egg would be when I wrote the tuition check for a semester in Paris, where I studied art many years later. Luckily, I took French in high school.
Over the next ten years, I continued to work in those art stores, and my vision increased with the square footage of my parent’s commercial ventures. As Tavonatti Galleries expanded, so did the repertoire of arts and crafts classes being taught in the back room. My sister Paris and I labored hours over macramé hangings and wire jewelry, which we would sell on consignment and, by the age of eleven, I was officially a professional freelance artist.
In the next couple of years, my parents divorced, but their combined creative spirit lived on whole in me, and I never strayed very far from my dream of being an artist. I continued to work for my father, where I learned to work with clients and to run the store in his absence, especially in the summers when he would rather be golfing. Despite my frustrations as a teenager, I learned invaluable skills, which would enable me to succeed in a field that takes as much professionalism as talent to prevail. And I was never short for art supplies.
Only now, after having taught college art for 20+ years and worked as a professional artist for over thirty, not counting the macramé years, do I really understand and appreciate how lucky I was. And in my own attempt to pass on a legacy that was handed to me, I’ve had to go back and remember, and to piece together a lifetime of seemingly insignificant influences that brought me to this place which gives me such freedom and expression and fulfillment. My dad gave me a language, a language that I would use to express my own vision and my heart. He was there to teach me the letters, and to watch me learn to draw the forms that turned into my words. He enjoyed the pride of a father seeing the first stories from his artist daughter, and he stayed long enough to know that, with this language, I would learn to speak to the world through my art and to open the eyes of others who seek this same conversation. I would become an artist and a teacher after all, just like my dad, and his story would be sure to be continued through me.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Never really knowing anything else, art was the obvious and only real choice for me professionally. I paid my way through art school and earned an MFA in Illustration, a field I loved and worked in for 15 years before taking my hard fought skills and professionalism and launching into the challenging world of fine art. I didn’t take the normal route…I decided to be my own sole representative, and work directly with collectors and clients rather than finding galleries to manage me and my work. I am a hard worker and did all my own PR, distribution and production, hiring interns from the school I taught part time at, to train and assist me on bigger projects, as well as my sister Tara, who is also a very talented artist. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree in our family.
One of the most difficult parts to building my art career was to stay true to myself and learning to say no. My mentor, Dick Oden, always reinforced the idea that everything would work out if you followed three simple rules: First, do what you love most. Second, learn to do it REALLY well and, third, trust that the Universe will support you in this. But you had to do it in this order…you couldn’t expect the reward if you didn’t master your art, and you wouldn’t master something you really didn’t love. I lived by this, but not taking that lucrative commission painting horses, because I didn’t love to paint horses, wasn’t always easy when the rent was due. Eventually, I was rewarded and people only saw examples of what I loved to create and they hired me to do more and more of exactly that.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Mia Tavonatti Productions – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
While my degrees were in painting and illustration, the only painting I do now are public murals as part of the Power of Words Project, a creative initiative I produced and manage for my Svelata Foundation. I started the Svelata Foundation for the Arts in 2011, after winning Artprize (the world’s largest art prize) as a vehicle for the scholarships and grants I give to students and artists who work on these public murals with me. So far, we have finished ten murals based on the power of words as part of the revitalization of four historic communities in my native Northern Michigan.
I spend my summers painting murals, and the other nine months are spent creating glass mosaics for private, liturgical, institutional clients and collectors as well as healing centers and a gallery in Key West, Florida. I am well known for my stained glass mosaics that are highly realistic, as well as my contemporary, sculptural abstracts. My style is recognizable by its dedication to light and movement, experienced through the sensuality of forms and use of layered, fused and stained glass. I have been said to “paint with glass”.
I’m proud of my ability to use my art education, experience and hard earned confidence as a problem solver to tackle new projects and lead teams as we manifest monumental, inspiring works of art that transform my clients and communities through the power of art. I think my dad would be proud of the teacher and artist I have become and my only regret is that he isn’t here to enjoy it.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
In the future, I have plans to expand my Power of Words Project into more small communities as we change consciousness through art, and continue to pursue large public mosaic projects, especially for healing centers. At this point in my career, there is little that I haven’t done that I wanted to when I set out. I’ve been hung from helicopters and flown in super sonic jets as a civilian Air Force artist. I am invited to mosaic symposiums all over the world representing the United States, and I have all the education I need. I am happy to be moving into a stage where I can do whatever I like whenever I like and I have plenty of ideas yet to explore both n painting and mosaics. My whole career was built on taking risks, so change is and will continue to be a constant in my work and life.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3744 E Fernwood Ave.
Orange CA 92868 - Website: www.miatavonatti.com www.powerofwordsproject.org
- Phone: 9495009899
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miatavonatti/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/miatavonattiproductions
Image Credit:
Dennis Novak; Turville Photography
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