Mimi Sherman Pearce remembers well what her mother told her as a child, that “the only thing you can count on is change.”
So, she has never been afraid of change. In fact, “I want to embrace it in all aspects of my life,” she said. “Which keeps changing.”
Pearce’s positive, sunny attitude has stood her well throughout her life. And it is especially valuable now, because the lifelong, awarding-winning artist loves to paint. And she doesn’t let having macular degeneration stop her, or even slow her down.
“Everybody has something,” she said one recent day while taking a break from painting in her San Marco backyard.
“It’s not necessarily good. It’s not necessarily bad,” she said, quoting one of her University of North Florida art professors. “It just is.”
In her retirement years, Pearce not only embraces her passion, she embraces learning new techniques and growing her skills by attending classes at UNF through the Learning for a Lifetime Program, which allows people age “60 and better” to audit classes, where space is available, for free.
Pearce attends classes regularly with her husband, Jim, who is also an artist. Their home is filled with their paintings and their dining room serves as their studio. Their joint website is www.mimijimart.com.
“Follow your passion, follow your dream,” said Pearce, whose “wet and dry” macular degeneration was diagnosed when she was in her 50s. It came on gradually, and “I miss some parts of things,” she said. “But I never wanted to do detailed paintings, anyway. My mantra is: art is for everyone. Art should be everywhere—in the workspace as well as over the fireplace. It has the power to calm, to transport and to heal the spirit in times of turmoil and confusion. That’s what I am hoping to do with my art.”
Pearce’s free spirit attitude toward life is reflected in her work. Captivated by the process of painting, she favors using bold, juicy colors that she applies in layers with brush and palette knife. She uses a variety of materials, including paper, wood, canvas and aluminum to capture the horizons of nature.
Everyday objects and nature, including landscapes, are her favorite subjects. She often creates diptychs and triptychs, two and three paintings that work together but can also stand alone.
Her paintings “After the Rain I and II” recently won a prize at the Florida State Convention for the National League of American Pen Women. The landscape abstractions, with a definite sense of place, are currently on exhibit at the Haskell Gallery at Jacksonville International Airport through April 6.
Pearce grew up in San Marco, graduated from Bishop Kenny High School, then attended Springhill College in Mobile, Alabama. Going to college there in the 60s shaped her life, she said, in wonderful ways.
“I was an English major, but I was very excited about art,” she said. “I went to an art professor and said, ‘I want art to be my minor, but I don’t want to start with Drawing 101. I just want to paint.’ He let me do it.”
After college, Pearce pursued a career in public television at the local and national levels. She also pursued art at an intense level, participating in many exhibits over the past 30 years and winning numerous awards.
“I’ve never been a detail person,” she said. “I can’t be that way now, because I can’t see well enough. But I was never that way. I’m really more into color and emotion and motion. I paint not only what’s there, but what’s imagined.”
