JENNIFER MAHAL -- In The Wings

Don’t let the name fool you. Artist Mia Tavonatti’s moniker is not

like Mia Farrow’s. Rather, it is pronounced “Maya.”

There is nothing ordinary about this Newport Beach artist or her work.

Need proof? Just take a walk by Newport Elementary School on Balboa

Island and look at the mosaic murals Mia and her younger sister, Tara,

installed there last month.

Not interesting enough? Go to Mia’s studio just down the road and take

time to study her paintings.

“My more personal works tend to involve places I travel to,” said Mia,

36.

On the back wall hangs a temple-shaped piece with Greek silver prayer

tokens hanging on it. At the top is a mother and child, reminiscent of

the Madonna. The models were a gypsy woman and her child, whom Mia

photographed during one of her trips to Greece.

The piece is titled “Token Prayer.”

“That’s my roadside shrine,” she said.

Another work, called “Balance,” shows a Balinese exorcism ritual

involving the monkey god and a battle between good and evil.

“I’ve always liked the intimacy of intertwining figures,” said Mia,

who is a professor at the Art Institute of Laguna.

Art was part of Mia’s world from childhood on. Her father taught art

and, with her mother, ran an art supply store in Northern Michigan.

One would think that would make it easier for Mia, the third of four

children, to follow art as a profession, but that was not the case.

“I remember when I was a freshman, my counselor told me, ‘Take French,

don’t take art. It will be better for you in the long run.”’

She didn’t listen. As a sophomore she started taking art classes and

soon was taking art as an independent study course because she was so

advanced.

It had its price.

“I figured out soon that being the best artist in the school was a way

to keep alone,” Mia said.

She also excelled at math, breaking the artist stereotype by taking

advanced math classes. Mia planned to go to school for architecture.

“I knew nothing about the professional fields of art,” she said.

Though she started as an architecture major at Michigan Technological

University, she became addicted to painting. After two quarters of cold

weather, Mia decided to apply to the best art schools in sunny

California. She was accepted at the Academy of Arts in San Francisco.

She never went. Upon moving to the Bay area, Mia took a job drafting

for a company called PM California. Making good money, she decided not to

leave the job for school. A year and half later, she moved to Southern

California to work for an engineering firm in Irvine. She has lived in

Newport-Mesa for 14 years.

After attending Orange Coast College for a while, she went to Cal

State Long Beach. There, she earned her bachelor’s (in 1991) and master’s

degrees (in 1996) in illustration.

It was while getting her bachelor’s degree that Mia started traveling.

One of her semesters was spent in Paris. While there, she took time to

tour through Europe, visiting the former Soviet Union and Spain.

She started working as a freelance illustrator while working on her

master’s degree. Her work has appeared in magazines and books.

Mia has done three books for a “How to Draw” series. One on drawing

villains and superheroes, one on painting sea life in oil and one on

drawing cats. Each book was a new challenge for her, as she taught

herself the art forms before trying to figure out how to teach them to

others.

The one constancy of being an illustrator is problem-solving, she

said.

“I have a short attention span,” she said. “That’s the reason that I

do a lot of collage. It’s like doing 10 little paintings rather than one

big painting.”

Sometimes, after finishing a work, Mia will look at the work and say

“Did I do that?”

“I can’t believe I spend hours on those things,” she said.

The media she works in varies from project to project. Mia said she

enjoys learning new crafts and refining the skills she already has.

“Whenever I create work, it’s not about the final product,” she said.

“It’s about the process.”

The artist has had her share of rejection. A professor once went

through a room filled with her work and dismissed all of them, except

one, “Balance.”

“I had done that piece as a self-promotion for my illustration

business,” she said.

The professor said the rest of her work, which was meant to be

self-reflective, did not work. But the Balinese dancers showed depth.

“It meant having to abandon a year and a half of work,” said Mia, who

admits to having a hard time doing figures that represent herself.

She reshaped her show to reflect her travels and did “10 times

better.” But a month before her show, Mia went in-line skating without

her customary wrist guards. She fell, and the broken wrist she suffered

postponed her show.

“It ended up being better than it was,” she said. “It’s like my

subconscious was not ready.”

Learning the process of art is important to Mia, who teaches a mural

class at the Art Institute. She said talent is only one part of what

makes an artist -- it’s what you do with it that counts.

“It’s insulting that people think this is something you’re born with,”

Mia said. “It’s a matter of learning the trade and refining the craft.”

* * *

Do you know a local artist, writer, painter, singer, filmmaker, etc.,

who deserves to get noticed? Send your nominee to In The Wings, Daily

Pilot, 330 W. Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627, by fax to (949) 646-4170 or

by e-mail to o7 [email protected]

* JENNIFER MAHAL is features editor of the Daily Pilot.