Ming Ming Peters creates uplifting art in Covid times

Lockdown has been hard for many but for Ming Ming Peters it’s been an opportunity to branch out from her usual medium of art and to try new ideas.

Mrs Peters is known in Gibraltar for her intricate colourful origami pieces, which she sells in places like the Arts and Crafts shop in Casemates.

But during the Covid-19 lockdown she has turned a new page in her creative story and has tried new mediums such as painting positive messages in English on rocks.

“Arts and crafts are my passion,” she said.

“The lockdown has actually given me an advantage as it keeps me indoors and I have no choice but to look for things to do and because I used to create for the shop but I can’t got there I have started doing new stuff.”

“The pebbles for example was me just starting to write ‘Stay Strong’ messages, or ‘Believe In Yourself’, or ‘What Doesn’t Kill You Will Make You Stronger’, I started to do those when I was walking on the beach for exercise.”

“I wanted to do something useful and people usually encourage each other on Facebook but if you have something in your hands and the pebble is naturally cold so it cools you down and is comforting.”

“So I started to put positive messages on them and I hope when people see them it cheers themselves up.”

She noted that her ‘Stay Strong’ pebbles are the most popular.

While she has created pebble art previously she used to write Chinese phrases and lettering. This is her first time doing them in only English.

The lockdown meant more time for “thinking and being an artist”, she said while she was thinking what could she do that would be giving something back to the community and send a positive message.

This is why she created her message in a bottle.

“What is Post Covid? Well people want to travel more, do more, more hugs so these are the things I wanted to share,” she said.

“I can see that lockdown can be quite depressing for some people but for me I always wanted to tip over the balance and make it positive.”

The most recent lockdown highlighted to her how much time she had previously wasted in her day since the pandemic started last year.

“I used to waste a lot of time looking at the news for Covid and every day you would get hooked on seeing how many people, how many cases and I have to stay I look back and regret that and I think it was a waste of time,” she said.

“I also see that I had my energy drained to always see that but I think that is human nature to want to know your surroundings and to see what is going on.”

The art community she said came together too during the lockdown with each artist calling others up checking on them to see if they are ok. Especially during the most recent lockdown.

“I think I managed to do all these things I really enjoy [creating her pieces] because it is sending positive energy but I would say I wish I had not focused so much on the news, the cases and that would have given me more time to create,” she said.

Looking to the future she said she is used to thinking and creating for tourist but she believes we will have less tourists in 2021 and that she needs to change her focus from tourists to the local market.

“I have in mind I want to do birthday cards according to different Chinese horoscopes because I know locals like to send cards,” she said.

“And, I will continue to do the rock messages.”

“In terms of drawing as I do paintings and before I used to paint the Rock or the lighthouse but for this year I will do more thinking of what would people like to decorate their house, what would give them more harmony and I could focus more on that as things now are more stressful.”