Dreamscapes of Desire: Between Fascination and Discipline

Mia Avila’s paintbrush doesn’t just paint—it commands desire as a landscape. Her work, both intimate and bold, invites viewers into a world beyond our own. Her desires take shape in layers of oil and acrylic paint. Her paintings live at the intersection of nostalgia and modernity, where vintage television sets flicker with a stillness. As a full-time artist and art teacher from Oakland, California, Mia’s journey is of passion, defiance, and self-discovery. In a world where artistic pursuits are often met with skepticism, she carved her path, turning childhood doodles into a fully realized career.

Painting, for Avila, is more than a medium—it is a means of self-exploration, a way to channel emotion into something tangible. In this conversation, she delves into her creative process, the allure of oil and acrylic, and the themes that haunt her canvas, shaping her signature aesthetic.

The rich texture of Avila oil/acrylic paints enhances the sensuous qualities of her subjects. Her work is imbued with a tangible softness, reminiscent of human skin, rendered with cloud-like qualities. Her canvas has an alluring sheen that evokes the nostalgia of a child's first time in a candy shop–a moment of wonder sparking fascination. The use of pastel hues hints at a transformation of nostalgia into an uncomfortable familiarity with avila themes of intimacy, control, longing and liberation, passion, and power. Leaving her audience suspended between fascination and the kind of unease that breeds a promise. Creating a tension that hints at the possibility of transformation or discovery. 

Mia Avila explores this tension by delving into the vulnerable exchange of emotions, passions, and dreams that drive intimacy, sensuality, romance, and companionship. Avila's skillful control over her brushstrokes put her at the reins of this exploration. 

In her Painting titled "Passionate Pixels," the artist Avila navigates the many color swatches of desire. With vibrant strokes of pink and powder blues, the artist portrays a striking image: a portrait of a male finely dressed in a black suit with a striped tie culminating with a television atop his head depicting a provocative illustration of cherry red licking lips. This visual could suggest an invitation to peer into the subject's dreamscape of desires, possibly a portal, not merely projecting desires but inviting the viewer to step into the subject's private dreamscape. What might we discover exploring this dreamscape?

In this realm, many desires coexist, Capturing the tension between fascination and responsibility of the unease in pursuing that connection. In her portrayal, Avila challenges us to recognize that desires, while natural and compelling, demand careful navigation. She clothed her illustration in traditional suit and tie attire, evoking a powerful symbol of responsibility and discipline reflecting an individual's commitment to professionalism, structure, and the principles to balance desire with autonomy. Avila underscores the dangers of forgoing discipline in a pursuit where surrendering autonomy can erode one sense of responsibility. 

Through her swirling strokes and evocative imagery, she invites us to examine the boundaries between intimacy and control, longing and liberation, passion and power. Fulfillment, she suggests lies between Fascination and Discipline. Mia Avila's paintings remind us that autonomy isn’t merely the ability to choose but the responsibility to navigate the landscape of our desires without losing ourselves.