Featured Artist: Miccamoo

Miccamoo is Micca Young, a self-taught artist and digital illustrator originally hailing from Perth and currently making waves in the Melbourne art scene.  Micca is known for her finely detailed, surrealistic oil paintings and her quirky, unorthodox approach in her depiction of distorted anatomical proportions.  

Micca's dreamlike oil paintings take inspiration from traditional Victorian portraiture, evident in her exquisite, detailed rendering of opulent fabrics and delicate textures, which are infused with her trademark playfulness and quirky humour.  Alongside the fairy tale procession of butterflies, dragons, hairless cats and koi, Micca also paints offbeat portraits of musicians whose music she deeply connects with.  

Though an oil painter at heart, Micca is also known for her series of conceptually-driven linework illustrations that explore the more sensitive side of her nature.  Last year, Micca played host to her first solo exhibition, Nutella on Toast (and Other Things That Rest in my Soul) and since then her star has continued to rise as her artworks and illustrations attract a growing number of interest and fans on social media.  

Make sure to follow Micca on TikTok and Instagram for regular updates on her art and current projects!

Tell us a bit about your journey towards becoming a self-taught artist. What drew you to take a creative path in life?

I've always gravitated towards art since I was little. I have a distinct memory of enjoying drawing at 4 years old late one night when I couldn't sleep, and my dad handed me some coloured pencils while he watched TV. I just remember thinking to myself that it was a lot of fun. It came second nature to me to want to improve my skills and try my best to recreate images on paper with pencil.

I always knew I wanted to pursue art full time but the pressures of needing to go to university and get a degree always held me back. I think people often go the “next best option” to being an visual artist by studying things like graphic design or architecture just to “play it safe” but I knew it was going to be completely unfulfilling for me to take that route and it would kill my spirit haha also I hated being in school. It was only during my gap year after high school that I realised life had limitless possibilities beyond the blueprint life path we are taught in school. I realised I could live my life in any way I wanted, almost like a video game like the Sims. It may be a bit delusional of me to think like this, but it gave me courage to keep going and do whatever I want because I believe I can achieve anything I want in my video game life.

How would you describe your unique art style and what does it say about you?

I consider myself to be a free thinking, open minded person who is calm but chaotic. I think that reflects accurately in my work. Some more words that come to mind about my work are quirky, fun, light hearted, curious, thought provoking and paradoxical, colourful, spiritual.

Tell us a bit about your first solo exhibition that opened last year, Nutella on Toast (and other things that rest in my soul). What was the main theme or overall vibe of this exhibition?

My exhibition was for me to showcase my collection of work thus far. I think most people who see my work are intrigued, and it was starting to build some momentum in the community around me. I felt like a solo exhibition was suitable for that stage in my life and I wanted to give people around me the opportunity to see my work in person. My work is a reflection of my heart and soul, and I really love Nutella and eat it for breakfast everyday so that’s why I picked the name hahaha.

The theme for this exhibition was fairy. I asked everyone to dress up because I wanted the entire exhibition, and not just the artwork, to be fun, interactive and a good time! I wanted to bring the energy I put into my work into real life as well, and for those who attended to feel like they’re really stepping into my universe :) All my future exhibitions will always have a theme and an interactive element to bring people together. I love how the exhibition turned out. I organised everything myself with some help from friends and family, from hiring the venue, food and drinks, decorations, framing, music, photo booth, merchandise, everything! I’m honestly really happy with how it went, hopefully my next exhibition will be bigger and better and happen in more than one city.

Has your upbringing or cultural heritage played a part in the way you create art?

I think my upbringing and heritage has played a big role in creating the person that I am, which directly influences the ideas and concepts that come to my mind. I think quite introspectively and positively. I’m drawn to weirdness and nonsense. I set high standards for myself. I was a shy and observant child who grew up around chaos. All of these factors and more for sure influence the ideas and detail of my artwork.

You also create digital illustrations that you describe as your visual diary of thoughts and emotions which are visually and tonally quite different to your oil portraits. Describe to me the difference between these two visual styles. Do they represent different parts of yourself?

I feel like part of my role as an artist is to share my experience on earth as a human being. Sometimes I'll have fleeting thoughts or emotions that are relevant to me in that moment of time, that I want to share but don’t want to put those long hours into making a detailed painting about. My Miccamoo illustrations are mostly for those fleeting thoughts or for telling quick stories as they usually don’t take me more than a few hours to complete, compared to my paintings which can often take over 100 hours to do. So far my oil paintings have been to express the creative fairy tale side to my mind and Miccamoo is more vulnerable, but I think in future I would like to start incorporating more emotion into my oil paintings and represent how I'm really feeling. I don’t think I paint enough actually.