ARTIST STATEMENT
My work He Held Her with Tenderness… is an image of my father holding me as a newborn in 1959. My biological father was an abusive man who did not understand boundaries. This photo from a family scrapbook fascinates me because I have no memory of my father. What was he thinking as he held me? What was my mother thinking as she held her Brownie Reflex camera? Did she think their love was forever or could she see it in his eyes that it would all be over in a year?
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mimm Patterson is a post menopausal re-emerging mixed-media artist living in Crozet, Virginia. She currently holds a 12-month residency at the McGuffey Artist Center’s Incubator Program in Charlottesville, Virginia. Patterson’s early photography and found object sculpture from the 1990’s was exhibited throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and is now part of collections throughout the United States and Germany.
In 1994 she moved from Palo Alto, California to Dublin, Ireland and then later to County Donegal, Ireland where she made furniture, taught yoga and trained as a sports massage and neuromuscular therapist. After her return to California in 2005, Patterson studied yoga therapy and began work with underserved communities living with substance abuse issues and in chronic pain. Her return to art began when she was asked to lead art workshops for this population. For the past five years she has been developing a mixed media portfolio. Her current body of work is an exploration of family history through found photographs and encaustic collage.
Patterson relocated to Virginia with her partner Ben and their cat Bruce in 2020. Since then, her work has been exhibited online through Artist Alliance, Artsy and Art Forum. Her work has been included in brick and mortar exhibits at Pacific Art League in Palo Alto, California, Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, Illinois and at McGuffey Art Center and Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville, Virginia.
© Mimm Patterson