About Kirstin

- Artist, Writer & Academic -

Kirstin Mills is an Australian artist, writer, and academic scholar. Born and raised in the country bushland outskirts of Sydney as the eldest of three daughters, her childhood was spent in imaginary worlds, whether in the copious books she consumed, the wealth of stories and pictures she created, or the supernatural tales and folk legends she collected from her mixed Australian, English, Scottish and Welsh heritage. This passion for all things imaginative, creative and magical continued throughout her life, and today manifests in her three main passions: art, writing, and research. As an artist, her detailed paintings of fairies and fantasy are beloved and collected around the world, and have appeared in many different forms, from her own prints and gifts, to published books and licensed merchandise. As an academic, Kirstin’s research is having a similar impact, as she illuminates the fascinating realms of Nineteenth Century fantastic literature and culture, specialising in the representations of dreams, space, and the supernatural. In addition to her art and academic writing and research, Kirstin also teaches English Literature at Sydney’s Macquarie University.

The Alice Connection

Ever since she was a young child, Kirstin Mills has been collecting editions of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. At first she didn’t know what was so special about this particular book: she had read many other fascinating, exciting, and magical stories, and many that she loved better at the time. However, over time she realised many parallels between herself and the book to which she was so mysteriously drawn, and the ‘Alice’ connection came to be a perfect metaphor for her own creative and curious approach to life. A perpetually curious person, Kirstin constantly seeks knowledge and new adventures, and spends most of her time with one foot in this world, and the other in a dreamland of magic and imagination. She follows this curiosity wherever it takes her, and most often this is into the Wonderland of stories and imagination, which she paints and writes about, and also researches in the fascinating historical context of the nineteenth century literature, science, and the supernatural. Her research, unsurprisingly, includes the Alice books and the wealth of magic and meaning within, and her work is opening new doors into this classic world of dreams and curiosities.