Miss Misery

Tanya Thompson, otherwise known as Miss Misery is

an Australian born New Zealander who is one of few

female artists dedicated to street art and graffiti in New

Zealand. Miss Misery was obsessed with art through

her school years and this is where she began creating

the characters that would develop into the twisted

fantasy world that she is now known for. Over time she

had become very successful in her work and has later

pushed herself into broader areas such as fashion and

pop culture.

Miss Misery’s works are another type of graffiti

portraiture in a way, where she paints portraits of

characters who are usually adorable, horrible, bloodthirsty

and cute. She the sets the character in a type of fantasy

scene and relates the characters surroundings to its

personality. Her works are slightly different to the usual

graffiti art as most of the characters outlines are painted

with brushes and are filled with the spray painted,

airbrushed effect.

I enjoy the fact that when you look at some of her works

you can get a “vibe” from the characters, as if you can

sense an emotion that they are feeling. This is where

graffiti art can be powerful and this is why Miss

Misery’s works are so successful. Her works are targeted

at a younger audience, although a lot of adults appreciate

her works and can sometimes relate to the characters as

themselves as they reflect human characteristics such as

greed, beauty, selfishness and can also bring out ones

alter ego.

Her works are another example of how Graffiti can be

regarded as a positive artwork and this type of positive

attitude and response could relate to Graham Hoete’s dog

portraiture. These are New Zealand graffiti artists giving

their genre of art a positive and encouraging impression on

our society.

References:

Misery (2009) Retrieved May 25, 2010, from http://www.misery.com/