Victoria Milo is a Long Island native currently working in advertising but her natural passion lies in the arts where she expresses “individuality and creative beauty” with oils on a canvas. Although she is a remarkable artist, she says she never really considered herself an artist until March 1st, when her painting collection titled The Places We Ignore was actually hung up on display for others to see.
The Places We Ignore is completely inspired by the New York City subway. Most of us ride the subway trains daily but we may not be in tune with the natural beauty of the dirty and gritty train cars or the signs that tells us where to transfer to the next train. We never notice the way the train lights reflect on the yellowing tiles or the reflection of the impatient crowd on the speeding train. Victoria says that these details and the small things that we may not pay attention to are what mostly inspire her.
The collection is made up of scenes and pictures of multiple places in the subway system. All the paintings seem so intricate and well thought out but Victoria says they were all naturally chosen. She starts out by snapping a couple of pictures and then, she goes with the flow of her paintbrush. She likes to “enjoy the actual randomness of things” so most of the ideas may not have executed themselves the way she planned them.
You can see that The Places We Ignore maintains a constant theme but each piece of the collection is unique. I asked Victoria about her creative process and she mentioned that she begins with a central theme and looks for that theme in everyday moments. Although everyday moments may seem mundane, she uses her oils and paint to evolve these ideas into something new: bringing the life back into the everyday moments.
Victoria’s painting collection (some of which is shown here) is now on display at The Galleries at 153 East 53rd Street until April 30th. Her collection is there to inspire us all to dream of all the possibilities and dream of them through the everyday moments and places we ignore. Victoria ended her conversation with me by encouraging me to be a dreamer: “You know a lot of them won’t be realistic but why not have fun with it? If I didn’t dream, I wouldn’t have all of this.” – Victoria Milo
What piece of art has inspired you to dream lately? Share below!
Contributed by Denise Pina
Jessica Tiare Bowen lives in the juicy Big Apple with her adorable pink-nosed chihuahua, Gillman. He’s the inspiration for her first published children’s book, “Park Avenue Pound Puppy.” The book is the combined result of her two greatest passions: pooches and penning stories.
Her passions include art, urban hikes through Manhattan, drinking coffee with 3 creams and 6 sugars, making extremely detailed itineraries and traveling to far away places, singing along to Broadway shows, Netflix movie nights, discovering incredible treasures at Goodwill and thrift stores, and listening to stories from little people under 7 and big people over 70.
She started her career as New York City Teaching Fellow, teaching elementary school and theater arts at a special education school in the South Bronx for 6 years. She is now a Special Education School Improvement Specialist working in public schools throughout New York City. She is the Editor-In-Chief of the online New York City travel magazine, Used York City. The magazine focuses on finding the best of New York…as used by New Yorkers. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and an ASPCA Ambassador.
