Today, it’s not uncommon to feel like we are being pulled in a hundred directions. There’s the 9–5, the constant catch-ups, the quiet guilt over missed calls from caring parents, the pursuit of a semi-healthy lifestyle and the essential couple of hours streaming your favourite TV show, just to switch off. It’s no wonder a lot of us find it difficult to carve out time for our creative pursuits, although many of us still find time to do the thing we love.
For Mimi, inspiration often strikes in life’s in-between moments. Despite a full-time job as a screen printer, creativity still finds its way in. She draws energy from the natural world, describing how a recent evening swim stirred the urge to paint shimmering waters, even with an early start the next day. “I am very inspired and my brain is so full of ideas that I feel like I have to go and paint, and when I don’t, it’s gone.”
Spontaneity is key for nurturing a space for Mimi's creativity to flow, and having free time certainly allows for it to flourish. Most of us can agree that having a holiday is the perfect excuse for relaxation, leaving your home stresses behind. Mimi is no exception and finds she is most creative when travelling, going on to say: “the most I have ever been inspired was when I was travelling in Mexico. I was having loads of crazy dreams and doing lots of naturey stuff which really helps. I have a sketchbook from Mexico that has a lot of Mexican inspired drawings” as the country “was very colourful and everything was really decorated”. It can be easy to be inspired in a place like Mexico, where art is pouring out onto every street and each house is painted to look like a different flavour of ice cream.
Opening Mimi’s eyes to the possible blank canvas of her own home, when she returned she began the process of transforming it into the psychedelic abode it is today. With only the slightest slivers of white paint showing, the artist’s home is a haven for anyone into trippy visuals and colourful backdrops. Tropical vines climbing up her walls intertwined with snakes, slithering up the skirting boards of her stairs. Her love for nature comes as no surprise. A true hippie at heart, her home pays homage to the natural world itself, taking you on a journey across lively lands with each room you enter. Upon opening her front door you are gently placed back outside, strolling through grassy green fields on a warm spring day. Her living room; scorching with dusty orange walls, is adorned with jewelled lanterns and embroidered tapestries: reminiscent of drinking tea in the quiet corner of a Moroccan Medina. Dusty pinks and purples rise like mountains on the wall behind her bed, inviting you on a romantic hike at dusk, where the sun never goes down.
With each day rolling into the next during the pandemic, Mimi's world had broad horizons. Not being bound by time, her paint brush allowed her to process her recent breakup. She recounts the time prior to decorating her home as being really white and describes how she ‘wanted to get his energy out of there and make it as me as possible. It kind of became a reflection of my brain and a lot of it was really spontaneous because I had so much time to make it my own’. Not being bound by anyone else’s schedule or time constraint, creativity was free to ebb and flow. With imaginative strokes of paint crawling through every corner, her cottage appears to be the perfect place to create.
While her home is evidence for her love of nature, her dreamy paintings reflect where else she gets her inspiration from: laying asleep in her bed. Mimi dreams in extensive story-like tales. Recounting her most recent dream about being a twin escaping on a little boat, she outlines the plot and the landscapes her mind wandered to. In the dream a man took the twins into his home to protect them, but it sadly ended with the two girls swimming away, having to abandon their protector. “All the dreams I have are love stories”, she reflects. While these story-like sleep ventures don’t manifest themselves obviously in her paintings, one figure certainly does.
Mimi has a recurring dream about a witch in a cloak. She often paints this woman describing how “she is kind of like a spirit guide, a dream woman...Sometimes she is my mum and sometimes she is a different thing but she comes across as mother nature in my drawings”. This figure appears in many of her artworks. The lady holds a calm, almost omniscient presence. Sometimes she stands tall behind a landscape, rays of sunshine radiating from her head. Other times, she becomes the mountain itself- dotted with trees, bushes, and earthy textures. Wherever she appears, she’s entwined with the natural world.
Since being a child, Mimi has gotten lost in her world of make-believe. Having “always been interested in fantasy, magic, witches and fairies,” her work reflects her dreamy persona. It is a wonder how rich with ideas we are as kids - birthing boats out of our living room rugs and making magical garden potions using only mud, grass seeds and water. Having abundant free time often contorts our minds into anti-boredom machines and certainly allows creativity to plug in and take control.
Mimi’s world is dreamlike, rooted in nature and full of playful energy. It invites you to pause, wonder and reconnect with your imagination. Whether working on personal projects or collaborations, she brings a distinctive perspective and thoughtful visual storytelling to everything she creates. It begs the question: could we all benefit from a more imaginative life by allowing ourselves more time to be idle?
