M.Y. MIM's Page

Name

mym

Artistic Medium

Writer.Specialize in art criticism, particularly equine and Western art.

Birthplace

California, SF Bay Area.

Influences

Art, Music (esp. jazz), Literature (Lit major), My son. My incredible service dog Rosa, an 11-year old Portuguese Water Dog. San Francisco, including the ever-changing rich art scene. Politics at UCSB: anti-War, anti-establishment. My brilliant, faithful friends. Fifteen years in Seattle, with its dynamic jazz, art, film and theater scenes. Horse back riding. Twenty years of disability including pernicious pain, ongoing fatigue, and learning grace from it. My 35+ career as a writer. Getting paid for and satisfaction from writing! Loves lost.

How it all began...

I declared in the fifth grade, dramatically and not really knowing what I meant, "I'm going to earn my living by the pen!" And I've actually done it. As a writer, editor and marketing maven, I've worked for newspapers, ad agencies, did tech writing when it was the only game in town.
My passion for art also started as a kid. My mother was an artist, albeit an untrained, mediocre one, at least there was art appreciation.I was lucky enough to grow up with SFMOMA, the De Young Museum, and all those fabulous SF galleries. Started collecting in the 1970s. Back then, in those more trusting days, one could rent great art from the Santa Barbara Art Museum for $15 a month. So I filled my college apartments and the few years I lived here post-grad in a small studio apt., broke but young and with great, original art. As the years got more flush and houses got bought, I lived in Seattle working for the Seattle Times and investing in fabulous pieces. Now I'm broke again (due to divorce and disability) and back in a tiny Santa Barbara tiny apartment, but oh! What great art crowds the walls! I've combined my passions (horse-back riding got added thanks to therapeutic riding, the greatest part of being disabled) and I write for free about equine artists. The artists thank me with their work.
Although much of my art criticism has focused on equestrian and Western art, that is not the exclusive domain of my critiques.

In the works...

I'm very excited about my association with Art From America, based in Beijung, China.

Down the road...

Keep riding and get really good at it. Maybe even ride the Tevis Cup (the Ironman of long-distance riding). When I'm 65, my long-term disability insurance ends and I have to go back to work. I'd like to get paid for what I do.

About me in general...

Haven't you had enough, already?!
One thing that's essentially important about my life: I couldn't do anything I do without the remarkable assistance of my full-time caretaker, Mr. R. ("Toni") Almqvist. He does everything for me, including, quite literally, saving my life. He handles all my paperwork, all my finances. He does my grocery shopping and makes me meals. He takes Rosa for walks.He supervises all my medications. He opens jars, does my dishes, organizes it all. Without him, I'd surely be institutionalized by now.
Toni died October 8, 2010, from cancer diagnosed the previous April.

if you could collaborate with/meet any artist, past or present, who would it be?

I'd host a great meal and listen to Picasso and Goethe and da Vinci mix it up. I'd ask Lee Krasner not let Pollack get too drunk and pee in the plants and offend Stieglitz and O'Keefe. Nabokov and I might make sly comments on the side while Gershwin played piano. That's the start of the guest list!