Mirella was born in Adelaide, South Australia, of Northern Italian immigrants. She attained a Bachelor of Design/Illustration from the University of South Australia, graduating with distinction. She then worked as a graphic designer in Melbourne, whilst also securing freelance illustration commissions. Of note was a weekly caricature for the Melbourne Herald newspaper.
Having won a scholarship to study Visual Communication at the acclaimed Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, she moved to Europe. Thereafter followed a decade long career as a freelance illustrator, based in the Netherlands and then London, securing work throughout Europe, the USA and Australia.
Returning to Australia, she co-founded a youth-focused clothing and related products brand in Sydney. The label sold through retail outlets nationally, in New Zealand and London.
Mirella’s work has a strong foundation in design, composition and the craft of drawing. Her work can be structured with a very considered interplay of shapes, lines and positive and negative elements, or very loose and animated where the flow and energy of line dominates.
Mirella has won numerous awards as an illustrator and as an artist, including work featured in the prestigious European Illustration annual. She is an Associate Member of the Royal South Australian Society of Arts (RSASA). She lives and works in Adelaide, South Australia.
“I take inspiration from various subjects, some more whimsical and playful such as my animal studies, some more dramatic and thought-provoking with a conceptual edge. I aim to capture a certain energy, mood or personality in my drawings. I love the immediacy of working with charcoal and soft-pastel, you can really express energy and movement and it allows so much versatility of mark-making”.
“Sometimes the titles I give my artworks are as considered and important as the image itself, to provide a deeper meaning and maybe a new perspective – It’s all part of the intimacy I share with my work.”
