Born on the southwest coast of Ireland, Mia was awarded a scholarship from the Erasmus Foundation for a term of funded study at the Facultade De Bellas Artes, Universidade de Vigo, Spain in 1993.

She graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Fine Art from the Limerick School of Art and Design, Ireland in 1995.

She went on to win the Taylor Award from the Royal Dublin Society, a National Competition for the most promising Emerging Irish Artists. The award was granted for her extensive body of work portraying the elderly people of local nursing homes.

Her paintings are featured on the covers of a number of books, Tomas na bPucai by Maria Ni Mhurchu, published by Coisceim in Ireland, 1999, Glimmers A Journey into Alzheimer's Disease published in America in 2003 by RiverWood Books who also selected several pieces to illustrate the text.

Mia relocated to America in 2001 when she was invited to become Artist-in-Residence at Westhaven Center for the Arts, Trinidad, California; a two year tenure. An active member of the Board of Directors, she painted in an open studio within the gallery. The paintings and drawings produced during this residency comprised her first major showing in The States, The Listeners in 2003.

The artist returned to Ireland in 2004 and has once again taken up residence in the Kerry town of Dingle. The artist focuses on working from life through drawings and paintings rendered in watercolour and oil.