Ko Hikurangi te maunga
Ko Waiapu te awa
Ko Ngāti Porou te iwi
Ko Sofia Minson toku ingoa

“With red hair and freckles and strong Māori spiritual roots, my whole life has been one of embodying a sovereign sense of who I am. I’ve finally let go of the burden of being labelled. 

Painting has provided a pathway for self-discovery. It’s helped me to integrate Pacific, Eastern and Western cultures into my own model of reality."

- Sofia Minson

One of her favourite paintings is Sophia, an example of a courageous wāhine toa (brave woman) who embodies autonomy and empowerment. She loves how Sophia holds her sword in the centre of her stance as the ultimate proclamation of sovereignty.

Formative Years

Her painting journey began as a toddler. She has two older sisters, 10 and 12 years older than me, whom she looked up to. In her teenage years, Sofia began painting images that told stories and, in doing so, learnt about Aotearoa’s myths, history and magic. 

Funnily enough, being an artist was not her career plan, as she thought it would not be possible to make a living as an artist. She studied sciences at university, but the pull towards the arts was strong, and she decided to exhibit some of her works that she had been creating at home. They began to sell, and the rest is history.

The Process

Sofia paints intuitively. As the piece forms, her pattern recognition and narrative-forming left brain kicks in, and she starts to see symbols and threads within the piece that are highly synchronous and contain potent messages. 

When a painting is finished, she soaks it all in and begins to write the story about the piece and the title.  The people, landscapes, gods, geometric patterns and symbols are woven together and anchored within their myth or story. This is the final stage of creating her art.