s a teenager on NYC's left side of town, Mimi was lucky to fall in with a crowd of soon to become famous artists, sharing a cloisonné, enameling studio. In a building with no hot water or ventilation, Mimi thrived in her good fortune to hang out with the likes of Roy Lichenstein, Wayne Thiebauld, Miriam Shapiro, Bob Kulicke, and Alex Katz.

After she left Cornell Architecture, Mimi spent about 6 years living in the backwoods of Mendocino County, doing cloisonné and other art projects. Marveling at the gorgeous hills of California, she shipped work to galleries and museums across the nation. She had no phone, no car, no TV, and no health insurance at the time. However, she had her work in the De Young Museum and the Pasadena Design Center, with press coverage to match. The rural community treated Mimi very well. She traded work for farm raised meat and produce, and even for propane. Librarians found and sent her books she requested, and even her postman would drive out on his own time when he thought Mimi had important mail (her P.O. Box was in town). Of course, that also meant he was reading every bit of it he had access to! Sometimes he even wrote her poems!

Returning to the urban lifestyle, she earned an M.A. in Art from Lone Mountain College. There she studied painting (in small format gouache, oils, and large acrylic murals), the design of anything manufactured, and she held an internship at the De Young Museum Design Dept. (Lone Mountain College has since been absorbed into USF.)

Segueing into a commercial art career, Mimi did freelance work in advertising and graphic design. Among the companies she designed for were Walter Landor, The SF Examiner, Chevron, and numerous other ad agencies & design firms.

Longer gigs were at Lon Clark & Assoc., an interesting, "boutique" design shop and Moorhead Marketing, a 1980's high tech agency. After working for those firms, Mimi launched her own design shop. She ran it for several years until she took time out to play with her two kids.

When her youngest was four, Mimi published on Chronogram Cards, an award winning greeting card line. It can be seen on the Internet at: http://www.chronogramcards.com/

Teaching is her latest venture. "It is empowering to be in an environment where the prevailing sentiment is one of dedication to the work and to having fun with it." Sharing what she has learned and making otherwise mysterious things become comprehensible, has helped Mimi formulate and articulate new explorations.

"It's wonderful to see students grow," she says, "once they get shaken loose from clichés to which they thought they must subscribe, they have wonderful, fresh ideas."