“Painting for me is like solving a problem or a riddle. I look at a California landscape and wonder how to paint it. It is already so perfect, so beautiful. How do you paint what you see and feel? How do you paint atmosphere? The discipline of painting is for me full of technical challenges and emotional mysteries. I don’t want to paint a postcard.

I like to paint fruits and vegetables, especially pears because of their beautiful color and human shape. I love to discover beauty in everything, even the mundane.

I want to carve out images in my work, like a sculptor. I love color and like to move it around. I’m always trying to create a glow. I want the work to resonate. If I do it right, there is almost a sound, a hum.”

Victoria Mimiaga, 2013