Art Enthusiast Favorite: Artist Miya Ando
Miya Ando, Perception 4, 2015
Urethane and pigment on aluminum, 12 × 12 in, 30.5 × 30.5 cm
See Artsy's complete Miya Ando page here.
I first saw Miya Ando's work a few years ago in a Sundaram Tagore email newsletter. I was on their mailing list because at one point had helped with the fabrication of Adi Da's artwork, who had openings at Tagore's Chelsea and Beverly Hills locations in 2010 and 2011. Since that time I had kept an interest in what other work Tagore represented.
Adi Da's 2010 show at Sundaram Tagore in 2010 in NY.
In Tagore's email newsletter I was immediately attracted to the color and feeling in Ando's work. I searched for her online and this was the first piece I found:
I was writing a short story called Night Surfing, and this piece became my totem for the work. I felt it captured exactly the feeling I had been meditating on and was thrilled. I put her piece on my Tumblr art blog, and it started to get reblogged right away. At the time I remember her work made me think of Danny Fuller's time-lapse ocean photos. He is a surfer I grew up with on Kauai and admired his artistic development. Her stuff also made me think of Eric Cahan's sky images.
Soon, I needed more. I headed to online art heaven Artsy to look for more of Ando's work. Every single thing I found of hers I liked and resonated with. I am from Marin County and saw her work, Bolinas.
Miya Ando, Morning Bolinas 2014, via Blouin
Her bodhi tree leaf mandalas. Her bio says she'd grown up Buddhist. I had grown up with very strong influences of Tibetan Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta and my mother collects Bodhi leaves.
Rose Mini Mandala via Artsy
Ando's work feels happy, healing and elemental. Color is a/the most important feature of art to me because it demonstrates feeling so completely. The nonverbal is powerful. My grandmother, painter Grace Meredith, always emphasized color and getting the exact color that you saw for what you were painting. I once brought a brown blanket into her house from my car and she was so offended she made me bring the unacceptable color outside at once.
Today Ando posted this hanabira petal on her Instagram:
pic by @studiomiyaando on Instagram
There's an equanimity in her work, and something about it reminds me of both the elementals of growing up in wild nature, and of sitting in meditation. There's a stillness accompanying her work that is more than refreshing.
See Artsy's complete Miya Ando page here.
