Black pen, white paper, a dash of cynicism and a good dollop of humour. It’s a simple list of ingredients, but the method has been years in the making. Mig McMillan is an artist who has the innate ability to cut through the fluff and see the lighter side of life. The way she lives is replicated in her art, and Mig is here to show us that there is power in simplicity. INTERVIEW BY ALEXANDRA PICKLES
The funny thing is... I’m not sure if it’s simply the name, ‘Mig’, or the fact that she’s found humour in quadratic equations? But I like her. Whether it’s her ability to self-deprecate, or just see the lighter side of life, she’s got a handle on things that, for many of us, are out of grasp. Mig McMillan spoke to me from a camping spot in Northland that surprisingly had cell reception, but little else to link it to 2019. I ask her to tell me a little bit about herself, and she tells me she has four children ranging from 10 to 19 years old. The psychoanalyst in me finds it interesting that she tells me about her children instead of herself, but the mother in me just sighs and thinks, “Yep, well that’s how it goes.” Mig has just moved back to Tauranga after a couple of years in Auckland, but had previously been in Tauranga for about 10 years. Before that, she lived in Te Kuiti, and the shift from the small town to the bustling metropolis that is Tauranga has been the largest source of inspiration for her satirical take on modern mumming through her tongue-in-cheek cartoons.
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