About Mei

Tofino based artist, Mei Shapiro, has been creating unique expressions of art since 2015. A self-taught artist, born in 1978, she discovered that her true passion rested in pursuing her own expression of our human experience, working with water colors and charcoal using brushes, pencils, fingers and heart.

“I started painting in my mid-twenties, when I first touched upon my childhood trauma and painting was my way to express and release. Art is a way to connect to my vulnerability, feel it and give it space to exist. I believe it’s a fundamental part of our human existence and an essential part of our healing”

Her passion for nature, the fluid realm and the human touch has created an uncommon series of illustrations. She allows the paint to go free on the paper and watches it evolve exactly as it is; colors and shapes reveal images and creatures of life, and then she starts to sketch. It is pure, raw and vulnerable – just as she is in the moment. Heart to paper.

Her images are inspired by the clouds, woods, water and soil, she sees images in everything and believes art is to be found everywhere. Mei is being herself as she unmasks the authentic and occasionally uncomfortable human emotions with her impish fusion of illustrations. Sharing her art is her way of demonstrating how we can transform an emotion and turn it into something precious, embracing each and every story as a creation.

In addition to her watercolor illustrations, she infuses her art with nature, working with local Vancouver Island wood and wild flowers from Tofino to create botanical pieces of art. Mei is the founder of Sacred Blossoms, where she presses hand selected flowers from wedding bouquets into local wood, creating unique pieces of art to a to preserve wedding bouquets for a lifetime.

Just as each creation evolves and expresses her current state of mind, she hopes that each viewer will find his or her own unique story reflected.