Today we’d like to introduce you to Meghan Mills.
Hi Meghan, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up on an Island in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, but it never felt like it was my place. My mom is one of 8 siblings from a military family, so my aunts uncles, and cousins live all over the country. Our vacations growing up were road-tripping to visit the family and camping at national and state parks; shout out to Assateague Island!! Getting to see so much of the country growing up inspired me and fanned the flames of my wandering, nature-loving spirit.
I took my first watercolor painting classes at the Kent Island Federation of Art. I had always been crafty with a backpack full of paper, markers, and beads on any long car ride, but this was when I first realized art was my ‘thing.’ At age nine, the intense but transparent colors and unforgiving nature of watercolor painting fascinated and challenged me in equal measure; I was absolutely hooked. The transparent nature of the medium taught me about the layering of color, beginning a fascination that openly informs my oil painting practice to this day.
Growing up on the Eastern Shore exposed me to daily natural beauty and a reverence for the wild but also forced me to travel elsewhere for more formal artistic training. I’m so lucky and thankful for my mom, who fully supported my creative path from day one! She took me to nighttime drawing classes at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts (Annapolis, MD) drove me to the metro stop 45 minutes away every Saturday so I could take the train into DC to participate in the National Gallery of Art’s high school seminar program, and encouraged me to attend the Maine College of Arts pre-college program (Portland, ME) when I was 16. Without her efforts and encouragement, I’d be living an entirely different, probably terribly practical, life.
I got my BFA at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) where I focused on conceptual art and started creating large scale installations. The depth and nuance that can be harnessed by using specific materials and applying all their connotations with intention is powerful. I started reserving gallery spaces and composing multi-sensory experiences in order to evoke a particular emotion in viewers. I’m always most interested in the feelings that are hard to succinctly express verbally but are visceral, powerful, and/or universally experienced. CMU is also where I was first introduced to oil painting and fell in love with the pure materiality of it. While watercolor can be extremely unforgiving as a medium, oil painting is endlessly flexible and perfectly suited to my preference for many washes and layers of color.
For the next 10 years, I elevated my understanding of space and function by working in retail and freelance visuals for companies like Anthropologie and The RealReal while also honing a personal painting practice and developing my mark-making through oil painting. After trying out Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Annapolis, I still hadn’t found my place, and I was at a turning point. This is where the wandering spirit comes in.
In the spring of 2019, I visited one of my aunts, who was living in Atlanta at the time, and by November, I had found a job with a new startup brand at a local art publishing company and moved here. The epitome of a fresh start.
I fell in love with the vibrancy of this city and found the most beautiful and supportive creative community. I was home! The slower pace (compared to the northern cities of my youth), ever-present nature, and vibrant culture of Atlanta is magical. I like to say the Secret Garden energy here is strong. The dramatic thunderstorms and the way moss will grow on literally anything in the spring always feels a little enchanted to me.
It took another few years on the hamster wheel of corporate jobs before I took the leap and committed fully to pursuing my own fine art. Saying goodbye to employer-subsidized health insurance and the status that comes with having a ‘real job’ was scary, but I never looked back. I used to think I was an anxious person by nature, but now I know I just wasn’t living a life authentic to who I am. Now, I spend my days painting and laying the foundations for my art business. My most creative time (10a-3p) is for me, and I work nights part-time as a server at a restaurant right down the street. I love being a part of this community and seeing friends as I walk around the neighborhood. It’s a perfect balance of small-town life with all the benefits of access from living in a major city.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I always wanted to live a creative and exciting life but didn’t trust myself to create that life. I thought I needed the structure of a system already established to find success and happiness. What I discovered after a decade in retail visuals and my stint with the art publishing startup was that a good work ethic gets abused, and genuine caring often goes undervalued when working for big companies. Long hours and low pay with a general “you’re welcome to be employed creatively” attitude from employers was the norm in my 20s. As I shed the people-pleasing of my youth, the payment in praise just wasn’t cutting it. I was burnt out and anxious all the time, still struggling to pay rent. I realized if I can’t help but bring my all to my work, I might as well be grinding for myself rather than for companies where loyalty is frequently a one-way street.
Hindsight gets a bad rap, but my windy road of experiences has led me to this point and uniquely qualified me for the present. Hindsight can be beautiful.
Anthropologie exposed me to countless creative techniques as I created large-scale art installations by hand and technical skills with tools from building fixtures for the store. My time working in art publishing exposed me to the business side of commercial art, drop-shipping, and framing. And The RealReal introduced me to designer quality goods and was my most creative and elevated visual merchandising role, honing my taste. These experiences gave me the resilience and skills to take on the path to my dream life now.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m focusing on my oil painting practice, incorporating my experience and interest in curating spaces into my paintings. I bring emotion and atmosphere into the representation of everyday natural subjects. There is magic to be found in the tiny wildflowers and weeds growing in the patches of green alongside the sidewalk. Nature is endlessly complex and delightful. I like to take a common subject that’s familiar to many, such as a patch of flowers, and inject an emotion or feeling into the painting so there is more nuance than any picture could contain. I want my viewers to be transported into a more whimsical and colorful world.
I’m less interested in representing a subject photo realistically (since we all have cameras in our pockets) and more excited to pull out the subtle colors and movement within a scene. This lands me pretty consistently in the impressionistic school of thought. I love how using layers of color and texture in my paintings reflects how complex and nuanced our world is. By sharing my unique view of the world, I get to connect with everyone who views my work.
I’m currently experimenting with narrative and magical realism themes within my paintings. I don’t want to just paint a pretty flower; I want to depict a flower from a place that sparks imagination. I want my work to inspire the practice of shifting out of the daily mundane perspectives we are all operating within to see the same circumstances in a new light.
Everyone has their own ways of relating to these everyday scenes and I respect and delight in that diversity.
What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
If you want a different life, nobody is going to make that life happen for you but you. Sometimes you need to hit the chaos button and make some huge changes to find your peace, you can’t always plan it out meticulously and play it safe. I’m responsible for making my life what I want, and all the excuses I told myself of why it wasn’t possible were fear-based. Making a change is scary, but it’s also growth and totally worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.afternoondaisystudio.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/megcmills
Image Credits
Sean Patrick Photo
