Clay County Progress
June 15, 2006
Artist's inspirations featured in new gallery, by Lois Tomas

The creative process for artist Mimi von Litolff is about "sharing and self discovery."
 She is putting that process on display in "Queen Bees Gallery", a show place of her original work and that of other fine artists.
 Located in the artist mecca of Brasstown, in sight of the John C. Cambell Folk School and surrounded by other galleries, studios and artists, von Litolff expects to feel right at home.  Her gallery hugs the corner of Setawig Road and Old Highway 64.
 An artist since age 5 when she accompanied her mother, a painter, to lessons at Atlanta's High Museum of Art, von Litolff has dabbled in various mediums, incuding painting, pottery, sculpture, furniture design, decorative arts, and writing.
 "I started a journal at 14 to help clarify my thoughts and feelings," von Litolff said.  "I still spend time each day journaling my thoughts, visions, dreams, observations, and inspirations."
 Her painting is a product of this journaling process.
 "It is a manisfestation of my inner being in an outer form", she said.  "The inspiration of each painting has spiritual roots expressing current themes in my life".
 Since 1991 and a move to Taos, New Mexico, von Litolff has focused on painting.  It was the surroundings which drew her to create a series of gilded angels.  Drawing on experience restoring ancient Chines, Italian and French screens and furniture, von Litolff incorporated the old World art effects of using copper, silver, and gold in her creations.  The result is a luminescence that gives all her work a spiritual essence.
 But is is not one technique that sets von Litolff's work apart.  It is a variety of techniques to achieve the effect she desires.  These include leafing, painting and glazing on rough and cracked canvases.
Von Litolff's background includes success as a furniture designer, with pieces displayed featured at the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center.
 She has studied with Caroline Guillia, a highly respected furniture restorer, and worked throughout Europe helpin restore create murals and painted furniture.
 The grand openning for her gallery is set for Saturday, June 17 from 5 - 9 p.m.  The community is invited to come in, meet the artist and enjoy the work that graces the newly renovated space.
 One of the improvements made to the fieldstone building include the addition of a waterfall designed and built by Clay County resident John Peppers.
 She has invited other artists to exhibit and sell their work in the Queen Bees Gallery.  Her niche in the art community will be an emphasis on fine art as opposed to more rustic pieces inspired by the rural area.
" I'm at my best when I can make someone stop the race, for just a moment", von Litolff said.  "I feel there is something here to notice, to wonder at, to ponder and just maybe, get a glimpse of this experience called living".

 Naples Illustrated
May 2002
Articles of Faith
by Sarah FK Coble

A Wing and a Prayer
Mimi von Litolff, of Naples, uses enigmatic methods in the creation of her paintings, but even to the uninitiated, they are not difficult to approach and understand.  Perhaps it is because the figures that occupy the crumbly ancient-looking surfaces of her paintings are angelic, gazing into some contemplative place with gold and silver eyes, while still seeming comfortingly, beautifully human.  Something resonates in her use of rich, Byzantine color and applied metallic leaf reminiscent of ancient religious icons or medieval illuminations.  Her symbols emerge like pictures seen in clouds; there for those who seek them, but beautiful to all who simply look.  That is how von Litolff begins her paintings.  "These paintings are a form of prayer for me", she says.  "I watch images come out in the wash and discover as I work.  I feel as though I step aside and allow the painting to tell its own story.  In creating I am absolutely led."
 With a background in psychology, von Litolff has taken a page from the books on universal symbols and dreams.  The stories her paintings tell are full of symbols from many languages and cultures: comfortably familiar and intriguingly esoteric all at once.  "I found that the symbols of one culture aren't enough sometimes, that I need to use a bigger vocabulary."  She borrows freely from medieval imagery, and American Indian, Eastern and Western religions to tell stories that are intensely personal, yet universally engaging.
Von Litolff's work can be seen at The Seaweed Gallery, 2055 Periwinkle Way, Sanibel Island, 239-472-2585.