Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, artist Miroslava K. Vomela immigrated to the U.S. with her parents in 1982 to escape communism. She currently resides in Salt Lake City, Utah, after living in Connecticut and Washington, D.C.

Miroslava is a self-taught artist who works in a variety of media. Pen and ink, watercolor, and hand cut magazine/catalog images are the mainstays of her most recent mixed media art. “I usually start a new work with a hand cut piece that I find intriguing,” she says about her process. In the work titled Sink and Swim, Miroslava started with a cutout from a scrap of painted paper that she had laying around: “I liked the colors I had used on the paper so I cut out some random shapes; one of them reminded me of a fish tail so I created a scene based around it.”

Miroslava’s work is often intricate with a lot of layers, textures, and detailed elements that are transformed from their original states when brought together. Hand-drawn elements frequently contrast with realistic photos, adding to the surrealism and quirkiness of a scene. With each work, she continues to explore new ideas and different media, ever striving to find new and interesting combinations.