Don't let the name fool you. Artist Mia Tavonatti's moniker is not
like Mia Farrow's. Rather, it is pronounced "Maya."
There is nothing ordinary about this Newport Beach artist or her work.
Need proof? Just take a walk by Newport Elementary School on Balboa
Island and look at the mosaic murals Mia and her younger sister, Tara,
installed there last month.
Not interesting enough? Go to Mia's studio just down the road and take
time to study her paintings.
"My more personal works tend to involve places I travel to," said Mia,
36.
On the back wall hangs a temple-shaped piece with Greek silver prayer
tokens hanging on it. At the top is a mother and child, reminiscent of
the Madonna. The models were a gypsy woman and her child, whom Mia
photographed during one of her trips to Greece.
The piece is titled "Token Prayer."
"That's my roadside shrine," she said.
Another work, called "Balance," shows a Balinese exorcism ritual
involving the monkey god and a battle between good and evil.
"I've always liked the intimacy of intertwining figures," said Mia,
who is a professor at the Art Institute of Laguna.
Art was part of Mia's world from childhood on. Her father taught art
and, with her mother, ran an art supply store in Northern Michigan.
One would think that would make it easier for Mia, the third of four
children, to follow art as a profession, but that was not the case.
"I remember when I was a freshman, my counselor told me, 'Take French,
don't take art. It will be better for you in the long run."'
She didn't listen. As a sophomore she started taking art classes and
soon was taking art as an independent study course because she was so
advanced.
It had its price.
"I figured out soon that being the best artist in the school was a way
to keep alone," Mia said.
She also excelled at math, breaking the artist stereotype by taking
advanced math classes. Mia planned to go to school for architecture.
"I knew nothing about the professional fields of art," she said.
Though she started as an architecture major at Michigan Technological
University, she became addicted to painting. After two quarters of cold
weather, Mia decided to apply to the best art schools in sunny
California. She was accepted at the Academy of Arts in San Francisco.
She never went. Upon moving to the Bay area, Mia took a job drafting
for a company called PM California. Making good money, she decided not to
leave the job for school. A year and half later, she moved to Southern
