Virtual Memories Show 621:
Mia Wolff
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“Talent is almost irrelevant. It’s just work and being relentlessly focused. . . . Talent is like rain; does it go in the pot with the plant or does it go down the sewer?”
With THE EMPTY LOT (Fantagraphics Underground), artist Mia Wolff brings together 100 paintings from more than 40 years of her oeuvre. We talk about how she found the thread & structure for the book, the patterns that emerged as she re-ordered the pieces and stitched them together with new illustrations, comics and prose pieces, and how you can make a joyride of a monograph by introducing your cat into the scene. We get into her dream of catspiders that inspired her for decades, the game of exquisite corpse she’s been playing with Jim Woodring, and her history in art and side trips into a trapeze act with a circus and teaching martial arts. We also discuss the graphic novel she’s working on and how that art parallels her painting, why The Empty Lot has an afterword in the form of a page-by-page tour-conversation with Samuel R. Delany, her love of transparency & translucency and why her paintings of water are so magical, the tension of her pitch meeting with Gary Groth, and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go read THE EMPTY LOT!
“Think of yourself as a stained-glass window. That’s your karmic setup for this life. The light comes through; it’s the universe, God, Apollo, faeries, whatever you want to call it. That’s the Source. It comes through the stained-glass window and the image it projects, what you see, is what your art is.”
“I was painting these flowers and I had really missed the circus, and I realized this was just as good. Who knew? I don’t have to go up 25 or 30′ in the air risk my life and twice a day. I can sit on the stool in the corner with the radio playing, and paint. And that was one of those really good epiphanies, because that ride will take you right to the end.”
“I was a wild teenager, and then I was in the circus, and I did a lot of martial arts, and sure I killed my body in the process, but I don’t regret it. But you don’t have to have the life of the body.”
“You have to trust what you see, not what you think you see.”
Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!
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About our Guest
Mia Wolff grew up drawing, reading, and climbing trees before arriving at Pratt Institute to study painting. From there she joined the Big Apple Circus, subsequently going on the road with a three ring show as the catcher in a double trapeze act. Returning to NYC, she went back to painting (wolffland.com) and making books (Catcher, Bread & Wine, Eye Feed). Her latest, The Empty Lot, is a long monograph/graphic novel that is akin to an operatic roller coaster in paint and ink. She currently lives in Brooklyn.
Follow Mia on Bluesky and Instagram.
Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at Mia’s home on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 microphones feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4 digital recorder & interface. I recorded the intro and outro on a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photos of Mia by me. It’s on my instagram.