about

Welcome to my page!I'm Mikolai Mio, a Norwegian painter, writer, and multidisciplinary artist currently based in Canada.Much of my work revolves around Eiluea [eye-loo-EH-ah], a planet in our solar system that exists within a parallel future. Eiluea is the closest celestial neighbor of an alternate Earth, and the only known planet with an excess of spectral fleece. This material causes souls, spirits, and other sources of spectral energy to become visible (and sometimes tangible). Spectral fleece permeates everything and can be seen from space as an aura surrounding the planet.My work often draws on identity, memory, queerness, and the soul’s transformations across time and space.In addition to visual work, I am writing a sci-fi novel set on Eiluea, alongside an illustrated guide expanding its mythos.

Eiluea was once a lush planet populated by the Eilueans (the descendants of early human settlers from Earth), as well as a host of dangerous native species. However, a horrific interplanetary war broke out between Eiluea and future Earth. This catastrophe culminated in the surface becoming enveloped in irradiated spectral fleece, killing off the majority of the population and trapping their souls within. Since then, a generation has passed, and people of Earth look to the planet in the sky as a stark warning.Tormented by visions of a past life on the neighboring planet, Eiluean descendant Avriel sets out on an illicit mission to see what's left of it, only to be brought back to the past by a spectral entity set on changing the outcome.As Avriel awakens on a pre-war Eiluea in a different body, they struggle to navigate a sea of new information and memories.

It turns out that their past life, Eyv, holds a key connection to everything.Through paintings and multimedia storytelling, I'm attempting to build narratives that blur the lines between past and present, and inner and outer worlds.