About the Artist

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   Mitzi (Her last name is pronounced sah-toe-view.  It's Japanese and Danish.) is a Colorado based artist, who is originally from Japan.  Her artwork shows a clear and distinct influence of vintage shojo manga (少女漫画), tattoo art, and woodblock prints of her native country.  Mitzi has been drawing from early childhood, playing with crayons, watercolor, colored pencil, pastel, acrylics, and more recently, digital.    She has achieved the Signature Member status (under her Japanese name of Mutsumi Sato-Wiuff) of Colored Pencil Society of America in the 1990s, having her 100% colored pencil works published in such publications as The Best of Colored Pencil (Rockport Publishers), volumes 4 and 5. 

One of her other long-time passions in life was ballet.  So when an irresistible opportunity came up to dance and teach, she took a hiatus from art and enjoyed her time being involved in the dance world for a while.  A severe injury sustained during a rehearsal became a turning point, and once again, she began drawing while recovering from her injury.  This time, she parted ways from fine art of landscapes and florals and tuned her attention to what interested her more - fantasy art.

In 2010, she became a part of an artists collective, "Enchanted Visions Project", originally founded by famous fantasy artists Amy Brown and Jessica Galbreth.  EV provided a wonderful opportunity to produce artwork on a regular basis and helped her portfolio grow steadily.  Mitzi served for 2 years as an assistant administrator of the project, all the while staying an active contributing member.  In 2011, her long-time dream of publishing a coloring book became reality with the publication of "Gardens & Goddesses" from Ellen Million Graphics.

The Aurora Wings Etsy shop and the Challenge Blog are the newest art ventures as she continues to grow, experiment, learn, and play with an open mind and child-like curiosity.   When she is not drawing or painting, she enjoys playing the piano, gardening, and spending time with her family, which includes many animals (cats, chickens, and fish).



   Mitzi was a founder and a sponsor/prize donor of the Young Artists Contest on deviantART, a competition for young artists 13 to 18 years of age, working in traditional 2-D media, and served as a member of  the jury panel for 5 years between 2009 and 2013.  YAC is a dA group, organized and supported by amateur and professional artists who wish to give support and encouragement to the next generation of talent in the field of art.