ARTIST STATEMENT
As an older woman returning to art after decades of distraction, I take comfort in and embrace Samuel Beckett’s advice to ‘fail better’. His words offer the possibility of freedom (or perhaps reckless abandon) and I can explore and make as many mistakes as I need to make until the story I am trying to tell is told.
And the story I’m trying to tell is my own. Working with images and documents both my mother and my sister left behind following their deaths, I am discovering truths about my family and how my life was shaped and formed by the lives around me. I believe truth is based on perspective – that it is malleable and unmoored – and my work is a reflection of that belief.
I use found photographs and documents combined with encaustic collage, stitching and the written word. I appreciate the intimacy of smaller formatted work and I enjoy manipulating images through layering and overlapping flipped transparencies. My hope is that the viewer questions what they see – that they want to know more. And while the story I am telling though these images is my own, I hope my work is also a reminder that our stories are the building blocks of connection.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mimm Patterson is a re-emerging mixed media artist, writer and trauma-informed yoga therapist living in Crozet, Virginia with her partner Ben and 21-year-old cat Bruce. She holds a BA in Studio Art and Education, an MFA in Transpersonal Psychology and is a ICF certified creativity coach. This past July she began a twelve month residency in the Incubator Studio at McGuffey’s Art Center in Charlottesville, Virginia.
© Mimm Patterson