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Mandi Ziino was drawn to painting at a very young age. She initially desired to capture what she saw. As she became more in-tune with herself, she began to use art as a way to express her emotions. This led her to move away from realism to abstraction. Emotions became colors; thoughts became movement. Each of her works captures a definite mood. Mandi was born and raised in a rural area of Montana with the beauty of nature constantly around her. Her love of the earth continues to inspire her to create many works of art. She feels the most at peace in nature and can really tune-in to her thoughts when surrounded by beauty. Her roots in nature are apparent even in her more abstract paintings. The abstractions seem to form landscapes. |
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Mandi's goal is to capture the emotion of what she is experiencing. If an object triggers the emotion then a form or figure will appear. When the figures appear they are not given many details, perhaps best described as images of a dream. She paints from pure emotion and does not judge the outcome. Her main driving force is often the disparity between nature and human experience. She consistently uses a bright vivid color palette to make the objects really bounce off the paper. A painting is usually completed in one sitting because the next day her mood has changed. Therefore, it would be out of tune to the inspiration of the piece. During formal training at the University of Montana, Mandi Ziino was shown a variety of styles and forms of media. This broadened her range of tools, and she started to develop an interest in photography. For painting, she generally uses watercolor and oils; however, she often mixes in ink, conté and pastels. She refuses to choose one because she feels that each media can create various moods and chooses not to limit herself. She came to the realization that painting is best for capturing her emotions and photography her environment. Shortly after graduating college with a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, her oil painting, "Mental Chaos" was accepted in the MDA Museum collection. The painting was an abstraction of her head. The swirl of colors mapped out the energy points in her body. She then became absorbed in digital photography. This allowed her to create large format images. It also became easier to mix photos together allowing her to combine feeling with the environment. Her photographs are often high detailed images of nature, usually capturing something very small. She is always trying to capture what people miss at first glance. The photograph, "Hidden," is one such example, the photo of a rose masks a frog hidden within the leaves. The photograph was featured at the Smithsonian Museum after receiving an award of excellence from VSA Arts competition. Another photograph, "Minds Eye" was featured in the Kennedy Center. It is a close-up of her eye with flowers forming her hair. |
