Arts » Arts Features

Woman of steel

By Sarah Rowland, November 30, 2006

Onetime welder Mimi Law makes her mark in metal

“I could be just grinding for hours and hours every day on a certain job.” That’s local metal sculptor Mimi Law describing an average workday. It’s not nearly as suggestive as it sounds, but she’s the first to admit that she does do a lot of dirty work.

“That’s when I have to wear my respirator mask and my goggles and I’m covered in dust,” says the petite Law, in her East Van studio about what it’s like being a lightweight heavy-metal queen.

After earning an aerospace-engineering degree from McGill University and then dabbling in almost every discipline offered at the Emily Carr Institute, she finally found her calling in a sculpture class. She can still remember hammering out those first few pieces.

“I just felt this calmness running through me, and it was just like I was in my own world when I was doing it,” she says.

So instead of completing her degree, she got a welding ticket and spent five years honing her craft. (Yes, she gets the Flashdance thing a lot.) It was only recently that she decided to go it alone as a full-time sculptor—which means it’s up to her to think of safety first when she’s tackling one of her stainless-steel works of art. Along with her mask, she’s got two respirators: a heavy-duty model and a lightweight version that isn’t as airtight. According to Law, each has its pros and cons.

“There’s always a tradeoff,” she says. “I can either breathe in a little bit more dust or get a migraine from all the extra weight on my head. That’s another reason I decided to work for myself: because it’s really hard on the body, so now, at the end of the day, I can’t blame anybody for my headache.”

True, she does physically suffer for her art, but the fact that Law can design and manufacture gives her an edge in the home-décor market, where her custom-made fireplace covers and wrought-iron railings are starting to take off.

Heavy-metal queen law’s secret is creating ultra-light pieces, such as her artfully slim, functional curve bench. David Li photo.

“People who buy my stuff are people who buy art,” she says. “So I think it really helps, because working with these materials is a negotiation. Sometimes they won’t let you do what you want them to do. As the fabricator, though, I can keep those limitations in mind when I’m designing things for clients.” (To order, prospective clients can call or e-mail Law at 604-215-1433 or contact@mimilaw.ca.)

Like her home furnishings, Law’s sculptures are pared down. Her Study of Hands ($1,800), for example, looks like someone trying to pry open jammed elevator doors. The seven-foot-tall piece is seven inches wide and consists of two smoothly finished steel beams that are almost completely featureless save for the life-size and very detailed fingers that are creeping out as though trying to pry open the structure.”

As well, she has a seven-piece series of stainless-steel mirrors (price to be determined upon completion) with simple, clean designs engraved on tiny sections of the mirrors’ faces. She does this by hand, polishing in different directions to give a three-dimensional effect. It should be noted that the mirrors are purely for art’s sake, as it is impossible to check your hair in the blurry reflection.

Law also has a curved lounge chair ($1,500) that she describes as “sculptural furniture”. It could also be described as something Mickey Rourke would have had in his (then) ultra-contemporary 9 ½ Weeks pad.

“I did that one a long time ago just to experiment with form and putting different finishes together, like chrome set against satin-finished steel,” she says. “I wasn’t even thinking about the function side of it. So I wouldn’t tell people this is comfortable to sit on. I see it as working well as a display piece in a store.”

Once you’ve seen Law stand next to some of her bigger pieces, it’s not surprising to hear that she gets a lot of comments like, “Wow, you’re only 5’3”. How can you do that?” The secret is that some of her statuesque pieces are hollow, and that’s no accident.

“I think about weight a lot, like how much I can handle, so when I’m designing I’m constantly thinking, ”˜Can I handle this? Can I move it around?’ because I’m only me. I’m not a big shop.”

And she’s more than okay with herself.

“I’ve accepted my size limitations a long time ago,” she says. “I’m not trying to be a big man; I am a small woman. I will do what I’m good at and what I’m capable of, and that’s that.”