AN INTERVIEW WITH MIKA COLLINS
Written by Kim Weeks from her interview with Mika Collins
10/02/24
Mika Collins is not a typical Western artist. While some of her paintings are Western in theme or origin, most of her work comes directly from her heart and her mind. Her work is fresh, original, and seem to resonate with a growing number of enthusiasts and collectors because of their emotional expression.
Mika says her first foray into showing and selling her art was the Out West Art Show, held every March in Great Falls. And at first, she was not sure how her paintings would be received at this predominantly Western themed event.
“You have a lot if realism, a lot of cowboys, you know? And then I show up, and I’m not that at all. I thought, ‘I’m not sure how people are going to take to my style.’ It’s obviously very different from a lot of things in there, and it could be really good or really bad,” she said. “But I’ve had really positive feedback and have met the best people through that.”
Her work tends to connect with people on a more emotional level, invoking personal stories and memories. And while Mika says she paints for herself and from her own emotions and experiences, she loves knowing that people are relating to her pieces through the lens of their own lives.
“I get a lot of stories. They’ll look at something and they’ll have a story of their own, which is the greatest thing for me, especially as an artist,” she said. “I have my own story in this painting, but I want somebody to be able to connect to the painting with their own memory, their own story.”
Mika is one of three painters in her immediate family, all of whom are successful working artists. Her father is renowned landscape painter, Troy Collins, and her sister is Western artist Cecilee Schulz. She feels fortunate to have her family’s artistic background, but she also feels that she would have found her way to painting even if her family had chosen a different line of work.
“Just being a little girl, in my room, I had a little art desk, and I was kind of an introvert, a quiet kid, really shy. And so I would color, draw, paint, even before my dad got into [painting]. That was just one of my little-kid hobbies,” she said.
Even at a young age, Mika was compelled to create, and her outlook was different than most others her age. She saw things in a unique way and was fascinated with the creative process.
“I had these metallic colored pencils and I would draw flowers or butterflies or just kind of random things. But then with a [marker] I would outline this figure. And then on the inside I would always do little different doodles and kind of do just weird, abstract things,” Mika said. “I was pretty young, but I do remember [thinking], ‘Oh, I don’t want this to look like a typical flower,’ or ‘I want it to look really different.’ So my creative mindset was just always more in the abstracts and seeing things differently.”
Laying the groundwork for her own artistic journey, Mika never tired of watching her father paint in their makeshift studio, spending hours watching his artistic process unfold.
“We called it a studio, but it was a garage, a single-car garage. And we had a stack of wood and he just kind of propped up a little painting spot on a cord of wood in our garage,” she said. “And I would just get a little camping chair and a sleeping bag, and I would sit out in the garage for hours, and just watch and hang out. It was kind of daddy-daughter time, but also I was just obsessed, and I remember so many times falling asleep out there, watching him paint.”
While her father was very supportive and encouraging in her art as she grew up, Mika says it was not through instruction, but rather unlimited access to his materials and the freedom to discover her own style.
“[He gave us] more resources; access to paint, canvasses, brushes. He was so generous that way. He also gave us free rein to figure it out, too. Looking back, I really appreciate that, because I developed my own identity and painting, and it wasn’t coerced,” she said.
In school, Mika said that art was always one of her favorite classes and, being shy and introverted, she turned to painting as a form of expression. At the same time, though, she also enjoyed science classes, and upon graduation decided to explore a scientific career, while art remained a therapeutic hobby. Mika dipped her metaphorical toe into the world of medical aesthetics, or medically guided cosmetic treatments, but she quickly decided that it was not a career path she wanted to pursue.
In the meantime, Mika married a member of the armed forces and stayed home to care for their two children. However, due to a subsequent divorce and deployment, she found herself as a single mom looking to support her family. She took on a number of odd jobs, she said, but her favorite was at a nursing home.
“I was in the dementia ward, actually, and I loved it. I love people. I love the connection. There were a lot of things I loved [except] the hours. And being a single mom. It wasn’t going to work out with the divorce and deployment,” she said.
All the while, Mika was painting more and more and was beginning to think about art as a career rather than a hobby. And in 2020, the pandemic gave her a little shove down that path.
“COVID was a bit of a turning point, because you had to be home regardless, right? And also I had to come up with a career pretty quick as well, because I was doing things on my own now. And I thought, ‘Well, this is my passion. This is what I love to do. I don’t know what’s going to happen with it, but I at least have to try,’” Mika said. “And I just kind of jumped in, and I was like, ‘You know what? I’ll build my wings on the way down. We’ll figure it out.’”
While the transition was not easy for Mika, she found that creating gave her an emotional outlet for dealing with the challenges she was facing, and that translated into paintings that people were seeing, loving, and buying.
“It was definitely a journey. Just a roller coaster. I think artists, in general -- we’re a constant roller coaster of emotion anyway, but it was a great outlet to just pour who I am, what I’m about, what I was going through at the time. … Because divorce is hard and it was a difficult time, and then you throw in the deployment aspect into it, and so [there were] a lot of emotions. And I needed a positive outlet, and it just kind of started happening,” she said. “And so many times, I’ll get done with a painting after it’s named, and I’m looking at it, and I’m like, ‘Oh wow!’ Somewhere in the conscious or unconscious I [remember], ‘Oh, that was that time or that moment.’ There’s aways a meaning behind them, and I kind of realized afterwards that [art is] kind of always healing.”
Her paintings are reflections of her own personal emotions and experiences, but Mika has been delighted to find that people truly connect with those emotions they see and feel in her paintings and can relate to them in a way that reflects their own lives and experiences.
“I think people are able to connect with some of the emotion that I bring to some of the paintings, which has been kind of weird. Because I don’t know how to do that, really but I don’t know any other way either. It really is my journal,” she said.
Mika said she has a number of interesting stories from viewers who have had emotional reactions to her paintings. One woman began crying when she saw one of Mika’s pieces and told the artist that she had recently reconnected with her biological father, and that painting “spoke to her” about that moment in her life. Another person, upon seeing Mika’s work in the gallery, shared that she had recently had a near-death experience, and the painting had brought that to mind.
“I actually had a different canvas prepped to paint that day, and then at the last minute, I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to grab this.’ I literally had the canvas up, ready to go, took it down, grabbed a 12 x 36 [canvas] and just went rogue. And I was just like, ‘For whatever reason, I need to paint. This is what I’m seeing. I need to paint it.” And then I heard the story, and I was like, ‘Are you serious?’” Mika said. “There was some divine intervention there, I think, for sure.”
It’s not unusual for Mika to switch from her original plan for a painting. Because her painting is so personal and so cathartic, it is her mood that often dictates what she paints, the colors she chooses, and even the surface on which she paints.
“I will sit down and I’ll kind of have in my head … ‘Oh, I think I want to do a couple of horses.’ And then I’ll do five figures or something. Then I’m like, ‘Huh. That’s not what I was planning but here we are.’” Mika said. “A lot of times I’ll start [and think], ‘Okay, let’s just start with a background, a color, a theme, and go from there.’ And I’ll see shapes and start to see something come together in the painting, and then I kind of run with it.”
A self-described night owl, with occasional bursts of mid-morning inspiration, Mika says she can paint almost anywhere and use almost anything to apply paint to canvas. While brushes and oils are the usual tools of her art, she has been known to use sticks, grass or rope to get the look or texture she wants. She is constantly inspired by her surroundings, which, she says, can make it difficult for her to stick to a specific idea or plan.
“I am pure emotion, so it can be really frustrating at times. I will have this idea in my head. I will be driving. I can be at a store, and I’ll see a shape or a color… [and] ideas will just pop into my head, and think, ‘Oh, I want to try something like that.’ Total ADHD mind. I get it from my dad,” Mika said.
Mika often shares studio space and paints alongside her father and sister. And while their individual pieces are not necessarily collaborative, she does rely on them for perspective.
“When we’re all in the studio together, we all have different styles, which I think is pretty cool, too. And it’s nice to have those different opinions and those different styles. What they see has always been interesting to me. But, really, [we look for] opinions, like, ‘Hey, what’s standing out?’ ‘What’s catching your eye in a negative way?’ Or ‘What’s working?’” Mika said.
One thing she admittedly struggles with is knowing when to stop painting and call a piece finished. For that she does rely on her family but is learning to recognize when it’s time to put the brush down.
“I will just nitpick and question constantly … and so I do rely pretty heavily on my family, because I could keep going until it’s scraped and I have to start over,” Mika said. “The longer you stare at your own paintings, there’s aways going to be something. So, when I get to that point where I feel like I can sign it, I have to force myself to step away.”
Mika says she rarely regrets having stepped away from a painting after seeing it the next morning, or even the next month on the gallery wall. And according to Sydney Weeks, general manager of Montana Trails Gallery, Mika’s work is a fresh addition to their space and consistently appeals to clients.
“Mika’s paintings really do speak to people who come into the gallery. They are often a departure from some of our other offerings, but whether it is the colors, or the subject matter, or just the sheer emotion of them, people feel a connection,” Sydney said. “It has been so great watching Mika develop her style and seeing her do so well. We just love working with her, too.”
Currently, MTG is the only gallery to offer her paintings, and Mika says that was a conscious decision on her part. She felt a trusting connection to MTG and waited until she was comfortable with her own work and situation before seeking their representation.
“I was patient, and I worked hard and waited until I thought I was ready. It was the number one gallery on my radar that I was like, ‘This feels right.’” she said. “Because it has to work on both sides. You have to have a good relationship with them. They need to believe in you. We have to believe in them … And I’m very happy with my decision, and they have taken such great care of me.”
Patience and a strong work ethic, Mika says, are but a couple of attributes artists need for success. And thick skin and sheer grit, especially for women, are essential. Criticism can be helpful if you don’t shy away from it, she says, and it’s important to stay focused and embrace the highs and lows.
“It can be a hard industry, and I would love to see more females being supported and encouraged,” she said. “If this is what you want to do then you cannot let anything stop you or get in your way. You have to push through it, and you have to welcome all situations and seasons that come with that. And the hardships and all of it are part of the journey.”
In Mika’s case, her art might not be where it is today without the ups and downs of her life. Consistently painting through adversity has helped her to express herself and in doing so, connect with others who might be struggling in their own right.
“I’ve said this so many times and I’ve always told people. I will paint until the day I die, whether I make another dollar or not,” she said. “But I hope that people can see or pick up on the storytelling and the emotion and the authenticity of who I am as an artist.”
You just have to look at her work, the colors, the shapes, the images, to see that each of Mika’s paintings comes from a deeply personal space inside her life, her mind and her heart.
COPYRIGHT MONTANA TRAILS GALLERY 2024