Mimi Payne
About Mimi:
Mimi Payne grew up on the east coast and spent her summers at the beach, where she was introduced to the idea of the quintessential beach town at an early age. Combining this love of seaside towns with photography has been a natural progression for her and has been Mimi’s creative outlet for over 25 years. Mimi still loves taking road trips to photograph the things that characterize living by the sea. The boardwalks, the piers, the beach pavilions, the sand dunes, and island ferries all evoke a sense of timelessness and tranquility that she wants to return to again and again.
Photography and love of travel are her constants, providing unique experiences that continue to shape and reshape her artistic perspective. In between travels, Mimi is fortunate to live in the Pacific Northwest which provides an inspiring visual mix of urban life and natural beauty. Slowing down to find and capture color, design, and patina in the everyday continues to inspire and engage her.
Grand Image: How did you get your start in art?
MP: Ever since I was a kid, I was interested in some form of creative endeavor. I drew alot as a child, and my mom would enroll my sister and I in different art classes every summer. I started screenprinting as a teenager, and was selling my own t-shirts in high school, so by the time I got to college, it seemed like a natural choice. I majored in Fine Arts, with photography being my main focus.
Grand Image: How did you develop your style?
MP: Photography is one side of what I love to do creatively, and its very much my happy place. For making photos, I've been interested in the same subject matter since I was a teenager. I’m drawn to seaside towns, vintage architecture, and old signs. I love wandering around a small coastal town and seeing what catches my eye, both in terms of color, composition and shape. Often these places that I’ve photographed have been razed or replaced by newer structures, so its also documenting those places that are now part of the past history of a place. I've been drawn to that organic, exploratory process for decades now. Designing on computers is my other love, and that process draws from my background in screenprinting, photo retouching, and my love for vintage printing processes.
Grand Image: Where are you from and how is that reflected in your work?
MP: I'm from Pennsylvania and spent every summer at the Jersey Shore. I am a beach girl through and through, which has influenced what I gravitate towards. Whether it be photography or digital art, it’s all about the blues and greens. If I can tie in traveling and the beach, even better.
Grand Image: How has your relationship with art changed the way you view the world?
MP: I can't really imagine what my life would be like without art, I've been doing something creative ever since I can remember.
Grand Image: What was the inspiration behind your Coastal Maximalism series? Can you tell us a little bit about your process of creating them?
MP: For the Coastal Maximal series, I wanted to create abstract pieces with a tropical/coastal feel. I pictured them being used in hospitality spaces. The intent was for less of a specific focal point and more of a series of intentional mark makings. Ideally our customers could look at the pieces like a sketchbook that somebody was drawing in while they were traveling or on vacation. The process was digitally creating loose squiggles, waves and little doodles and compositing them in digitally, along with colors and textures. For me, the key to a good digital collage is moving and shifting things around until they have a good feel.
Grand Image: Can you tell us about a key moment in your journey that helped define your style or your identity?
MP: I was lucky to have some fantastic teachers in high school & college that were both inspiring and motivating. My high school Graphic Arts teacher, John Kiner, introduced me to screenprinting, computers, and offset printing. My college photography teacher, Paul Laincz, created independent study classes for a group of photography students that had taken every class offered, yet still wanted to continue to learn. Both were wonderful learning experiences that have stuck with me, and informed my direction after college.
Grand Image: What is your current source of inspiration?
MP: I love going to galleries and art shows. The last show I went to was “Embodiment” at AMcE Gallery here in Seattle. Travelling to both local and far flung places is also a huge source of inspiration for me. The act of getting outside of my day-to-day routine is so regenerating, helps me to see things in a new way and appreciate the being in the present. Allowing myself the time & space to be immersed what I enjoy doing helps me to stay both creative, inspired, and productive. I’ll be heading to Whidbey Island shortly and I’m sure I’ll come back refreshed and with lots of new creative ideas.
Grand Image: What artists inspire you?
MP: I love the work of Stuart Davis, for his bold colors and the shapes that he uses in his paintings. And for photography, I’m really inspired by Stephen Shore and Joel Meyerowitz.
Grand Image: If you could have your artwork hung anywhere in the world, where would you like that to be and why?
MP: As someone who works at Grand Image, I'm lucky to see where some of my work is placed. That “closure” of seeing the artwork in someone’s home or office, etc., is very satisfying to me. Seeing my work out in the world, whether it’s a custom commission or new content I added to the line, validates that the work I’m doing is exactly what I want to be doing. It also makes me happy to bring joy to other people with my art.
Grand Image: What has been some of your favorite commissions and projects from your time at Grand Image?
MP: This was a 2 part project for American Campus/Univ of Arizona at Tucson, involving photography on my end. This involved a few different asks: Part 1 was capturing photos of the iconic classic neon signs of Tucson, all lit up, just after sunset, with the deep blue sky behind them. We were on a tight schedule, so the locations needed to be researched, mapped out & timed, with only a few minutes to shoot and move to each location, before the night sky changed to black.
These were then printed on 6 foot tall chromaluxe and installed in one of the student buildings. I love photographing older architecture and signage, and Tucson is known for its large number of still-working vintage signage, so this was a treat to be able to shoot.
Part 2 was a series of painted Polaroids that were collaborations with Kyle Goderwis. I took polaroid photos of little snippets and characteristics of local Tucson neighborhoods: an angle of a familiar building, part of a view you might see every day, or a sign you might pass while walking by. This involved researching Tucson local neighborhoods & well-known/familiar sights around town, mapping out our route for each day, armed with a polaroid camera and many stacks of film. After 2 full days of shooting, we returned to Seattle and Kyle interpreted the polaroids, pulling together a cohesive collection, then hand painted each Polaroid photo to make each its own unique piece of art. These were them framed individually and hang in the computer lounge.
Grand Image: Which media do you work in? What do you like about each one?
MP: As part of the digital team, we draw, paint, and collage images and elements together on the computer to create new pieces of art. I love incorporating my skills in design, retouching, and color theory to create new pieces from both found and created elements. On the photography side, going for walks with my camera & taking photos along the way is a practice of slowing down and seeing in a more selective way… which I find very restorative.
Grand Image: Do you choose to stay on top of current trends?
MP: I do try to stay on top of trends to stay relevant. Often trends are revisiting designs, styles, and color ways from the past. I'm equally as interested in those aspects from the 50s, 60s, and the 70s just as much as current day design.
Grand Image: What is your favorite way to implement self care?
MP: Any combo of the following: getting outside & going for a walk, preferably near the water, traveling, and wandering around with my camera… We are so lucky here in the PNW to have such a gorgeous landscape to dive into!
Grand Image: What advice would you give someone starting out as an artist?
MP: Don’t be afraid to take chances on trying anything new: a new medium, a new subject matter, a new approach to creating art. Even if it doesn’t work out as planned, you’ll still learn something from it. Keep making things purely for the joy of it… and practice, practice, practice.
