NEW! “The House of Dreams and Nightmares”, digital collage, 2022. This is the very first collage of the new year! I based it on an older piece called “Homecoming” from 2016, which I was never satisfied with. Although the new piece has a completely different story!
“Rebel City” by Mia Makila, 2020. Digital collage.
As a digital collage artist, I can work on a piece for months (on-and-off), sometimes almost a year. When I was still creating paper collages, I was limited to the physical properties of the cut-outs – but Photoshop liberates me in my creative flow (I can enlarge, crop, distort, edit, copy, invert the cut-outs etc) and I love it! And no, digital art is NOT made by computers! And no, when digital art is printed, the prints are not ‘posters’ but original prints in a limited edition (signed and numbered)!
The first above is the finished version of “Rebel City” (2020) and the two below are earlier drafts.
“Blonde Meltdown”, 2020, archival ultrachrome print. Available.
Woohoo! Good news! Here it is – “The Rebelle Collection” with 4 new digital collage, which I made exclusively for the coolest galley/store ever: @lamaisonrebelle ! The original prints will be available on their website soon! You can see all pieces here. I have been working on this collection for the last 5 months and I feel like they have redefined me as an artist. It doesn’t happen often that you feel like you have reached a new artistic level but I do feel it now with my Rebelle Collection and it makes me both excited and happy! I hope you like my new pieces, feel free to give some feedback in the comments! Have a great weekend!
2019 was to me the year of pure creative joy. It was also the year of vivid colors, like hot pink, neon green and nuances of azure blue. It was the year where I made many feminist statements in my art – from my @ladyicona project of making surreal portraits of amazing female icons – to my “Ungagged” suite, which included imagery of personal victories in my trauma recovery and some brutal girl power!
I will continue to be loud, fierce and unapologetic in my art. I already have 8 pieces in progress which will cross over to the new year – and I have ideas for many, many more!
I wish to thank my fans and followers for your kindness, support and love that you have shown me this year. You give me such positive energy and I always put it into my art and hopefully it will return to you in the end. I am grateful for your appreciation of my inner Universe.
I also wish to thank Stan at PROIMAGES AB and Therése at Westréns Glas AB for their loyal support and service.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
“The Pink Room” by Mia Makila, 2019, digital collage. Edition of 5. Available.
“Red Story No. 2” by Mia Makila, 2019 (digital collage). Available.
This piece was difficult to make. It is a real memory from my life. A moment that repeated itself over and over again throughout my relationship with an abusive man. I loved that man. Or I thought I loved him. I thought he loved me. But at times, he told me he wanted to kill me. During a few seconds while physically abusing me. he even tried to kill me:
Most of the times he is just threatening my life in various ways. Sometimes with his hands. Sometimes he has a knife. Or boiling water. I am on the floor. He is on top of me. I have his spit in my face. His hungry saliva all over me. His hands around my neck. We are both sweaty. I am screaming. He is yelling, calling me things, telling me that I am a sinner, I am the devil, a prostitute. Worthless. I am fighting for my life but at the same time – I am not here. I disappear. I dissociate. At times I am shielding my body with a painting of birch trees that hangs on our wall. When he is trying to strangle me, I pretend to get unconscious to make him stop. My strategy is successful. The grip of his hands around my neck relaxes, he whispers: “Mia? Mia?….Mia?” Since I am holding my breath, I suddenly grasp for air and he starts to cry: “I am such a monster… I’m sorry. I’m sorry”. My job now is to make him feel better. “No, you are wonderful, I love you so much, you are not a monster” I tell him and start to comfort him with my body. Nobody knows what he is doing to me. Nobody is comforting me, not even myself.
I am so proud to present my new art project – LADY ICONA! Lady Icona is both my new alter ego and a collection of surreal portraits of female icons – a visual celebration of amazing women! More pieces will be added regularly . Follow @ladyicona on Instagram. ♥
Here is a photo of my box of paper cut outs from 2008. I collected these vintage cut outs that I found in old books and magazines and used them in my mixed media collages that I made during the years 2006-2009. I used to buy erotica, porn magazines from the 1960’s, science books, art books etc and totally destroyed them with my scissor and created a new context for them in my art. It was a fun creative process, totally freudian and surreal.
A video from 2007 where I show how I used to play with these cut outs in my art.
Some of my mixed media pieces from 2006-2009:
MIA MAKILA 