Mimi Vang Olsen is a New York-born

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

specializing in pet portraits in The Village since the early 1970s. Her work has brought her international recognition and celebrity

clientele In sales, commerce, and economics, a customer (sometimes known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a good, service, product or an idea - obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier via a financial transaction or exchange for m ...

Family

Olsen was born in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

. Her parents were immigrants from

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

and

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

. Her father was a photographer and her mother was a textile designer. Her husband, Bent, is Danish.

Artistry

It is estimated that Vang Olsen has painted close to 400 pet and family

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

s over her decades-long career. “I approach it as if it were a formal portrait of a person or a piece of fruit,” Vang Olsen said. “It could be a

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

. And by analyzing the pet’s personality, dog or cat, you can figure out how to do a beautiful portrait.” She only paints pets that are alive so she can visit the pet and learn it's personality for the portrait. Vang Olsen's artwork can be seen in most card stores, with profits from calendars and cards going to The Humane Society of New York.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Painters from New York City American portrait painters Artists from Manhattan People from Greenwich Village {{US-painter-stub