Biography from AskART:
| The following, submitted April 2002, is from the artist.
Tina Mion has painted bright, colorful, highly original portraits of the 41 men who have been President of the United States. Her work does not mimic the "official" portraits that hang at the National Portrait Gallery and the White House. Instead, Mion tries to paint the personality of each president.
Her presidential portraits have been shown at the Truman and Eisenhower libraries, and the Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa. Mion is also working on a series of portraits of first ladies, trying to capture their personalities. After much reading of biographies, first-hand accounts, and other research, Mion makes up a little story about each of her subjects, and then paints them in that imaginary moment.
"Most of the time I paint famous people from history, although friends and relatives sometimes appear. My primary medium is oil paint on canvas or linen, sometimes under-painted with acrylic. I paint in a wide variety of styles to capture the spirit and era of each subject."
Artist statement: "I grew up in Washington, D.C., so I often went to the National Portrait Gallery where I was surrounded by beautiful but stiff and predictable paintings. In spite of the occasional American flag waving in the background, the paintings didn't tell me anything about who these people were. Of course, they were mostly of men, by men. Years later I decided to make my own portrait gallery.
From 1994-1996 I painted all the Presidents of the United States and other historical men. I chose my subjects by blindfolding myself and drawing from a deck of Portrait Gallery playing cards, conveniently produced by the Smithsonian to promote their collection. It is a regular deck, but each card also has an official presidential portrait or other historical figure. My versions all incorporate the original card's value and suit - but the similarity stops there. Each painting I do involves an enormous amount of research. My paintings tell stories and are full of symbolism; I even frame them in the style of the subject's era.
In 1996, all my presidents competed on the internet in a "Virtual Election." I ran as a candidate on the Joker ticket with my basset hound as Vice President. Votes came from as far away as Japan. The LA Times announced on Super Tuesday that I was in first place with Nixon in second. Kennedy eventually won. That show will be traveling off and on through 2003 to various Presidential museums. The Eisenhower Museum in Abilene currently has a copy of the Virtual Election on their website. It may be viewed at http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/eisenhower/ballot.htm.
In 1996, I was visiting the National History Museum and discovered that many of the so - called "First Ladies" were not the Presidents wives, but rather younger substitutes. Many of the wives were mentally, physically, or emotionally unable to fill the demanding role - and some just didn't want to! Many of the wives were never a subject of an official portrait; of two Presidents wives, not a single image exists. Through research, I came to realize these women - who I had thought of a remote historical entities - expressed in their lives a spectrum of women's experience that is equally valid today: triumph and tragedy, love and betrayal, poverty and wealth, power and its loss, brilliance and mediocrity, motherhood and apple pie. In the spring of 1997 I moved to Arizona and began "Ladies First" - my most ambitious project. "Ladies First" consists of 53 large paintings including all the wives of the American Presidents and a variety of other fascinating women such as: Madam T. J. Walker, Carry Nation, three Winslow Harvey Girls, and Queen Lilliokulani - with cards corresponding to the Presidents deck.
My studio and home are part of La Posada Hotel - southwest premier architect Mary Jane Colters' masterpiece in Winslow, Arizona. My husband and I are restoring the building, which was closed for forty years. We re-opened La Posada to the public in 1998. Many of my paintings and their stories are on the walls as a public museum and gallery, and this 72, 000 square-foot castle in the high desert has become my version of the National Portrait Gallery. "
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