Mimi Leung

I am an artist because it’s how I process my thoughts and feelings whilst I try to make sense of the world around me. My work is all about a playful exploration of meaning, beauty, joy and self-expression. I grew up in London, but I now live in Shepparton, where the space and solitude is good for my soul. I might live in Australia, but I’ll never call a pair of trousers pants. In the past I’ve lived in London, Hong Kong, Yuendumu, Alice Springs and Melbourne. I studied a Master's of Communication Art and Design at the Royal College of Art in London. It was often a blur but always an adventure to explore and create in a multidisciplinary environment with so many talented peers from all sorts of backgrounds. I think of myself as someone who is easily distracted and always flitting between forms and ideas, who was put on this planet to try and find something meaningful through creating. I spend a lot of time daydreaming, because I love how the mundanity of life can spark brilliant fantasies. My studio is currently in my garage because I need space to make a mess and experiment. The three things currently inspiring me the most are Philip Guston, flowers and my daughter’s irrepressible scribbles. Most of my work starts with a kind of stream-of-consciousness list of words on a particular topic, followed by loose pen-and-paper scribbles, to try to capture the general composition and feel of the piece. Then I refine it by researching visual references and specifying things to include in the work, sketching the piece out more fully in Procreate before taking it to Photoshop or Illustrator for final art.