Mimi Damrauer and her sisters grew up in a creative household where their mother loved to cook and sew. Mimi in particular relished in the possibilities of textiles from a young age and made it her life’s work to create happy and whimsical art with the softness and textures of fabrics.
Today, Mimi is an an award-winning textile artist. Her abstract, one-of-a-kind works of art are created with her own hand-dyed, cotton fabrics plus exotic textiles from all over the globe.
“People look at a simple piece of art with simple shapes and think it looks easy, but it takes many years of technique and practice,” Mimi said. “Over the years, my art has gotten simpler. I use circles, lines and squares mainly. I’ve been doing this for over 25 years and still haven’t run out of ideas.”
Mimi finds inspiration everywhere, from the lines of a crooked telephone pole to the stones on a beach. She looks at classic art, especially Egyptian art and Egyptian turquoise, and sees design that could translate to textiles. These days in particular, she’s looking to her past collections for new inspiration.
“I have unfinished business with some of those collections.” she said. “I’d start a design and make a few pieces and then move on because I’d have another idea, and then those ideas would keep coming. There are so many designs that I never really fleshed out.”
Being a recent transplant from Chicago, Mimi is especially excited to introduce her art to Arizonans and other visitors. After multiple people recommended she participate in the Celebration of Fine Art, she came and looked at the show for herself.
“I talked to artists who were super generous with me asking them questions about how to get in the show,” she said. “I got really lucky and got in. It’s just been magical.”
See more of Mimi’s story below: