Using Things Up

Miriam Lilje is a New Orleans-based mixed-media artist. Her paintings incorporate acrylic, oil, and watercolor paints, as well as gouache, oil pastels, pencils, and fabrics; her vast body of work depicts abstracted landscapes, pastoral vistas, and disrupted urban details. Lilje was raised in Germany, receiving her Masters’ Degree in Art History and French Literature from the University of Hamburg before relocating to New Orleans in 2008. While working as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art History at Tulane University, Lilje founded Atelier Mimi, a workshop and teaching studio that serves and guides artists of all ages in New Orleans. When she is not making or teaching art, Miriam enjoys playing the violin and piano, listening to classical music, and exploring nature.

In my paintings of landscapes and urban settings, I find inspiration through keen observation of places I’ve visited and the memories they leave with me. Experiencing a day outdoors, taking a stroll through a picturesque town, or sitting on a park bench; these precious, magical, and awe-inspiring moments have a profound effect on my work.

My artwork features oil, acrylic, and watercolor media, and often includes gestural lines in pencil and pastel. The paintings are the result of transforming my worldly perception into a new reality; I create a sense of space and setting based on architectural environments, gardens, and vistas, informed by mental images of pleasant journeys past. I enjoy combining representational and abstract elements, arbitrary painting techniques, and incorporating negative space. Utilizing light and bright colors to echo the notion of a leisurely summer day evokes a similarly pleasant experience for the viewer.

Through painting, I express the fascination and awe I feel when exploring nature within and beyond urban settings, and the various emotional states that present themselves when exploring new terrain. Abstraction allows me to explore unlimited possibilities and take the viewer to foreign, mysterious, tangible yet dreamlike, and hopefully inspiring places.