They may be tiny, but certain curious characters who have popped up across the north and north-east in recent months have had a big impact.
The 4cm-tall sticker people include a fisherman, a window cleaner, some giggling girls and a man with a net closing in on a runaway monkey.
Sparking even more curiosity is the creative mind behind the miniature artworks, who goes by the tag name MicroMischief.
The incognito street artist is similar to urban legends Banksy and Keith Haring in both style and execution, secretly placing work around town.
The images are humorous, thought-provoking or downright cheeky.
They have appeared in Inverness, Aberdeen and Gairloch in spots such as cafes, museums, lampposts and street signs.
They have even travelled as far away as Copenhagen and Croatia, as the P&J discovered during an exclusive telephone interview with the elusive artist.
So, who is MicroMischief?
When the reply comes, it’s evident from the soft, Highland lilt that there’s one thing MicroMischief does not have in common with Banksy or Haring.
“Well, I am a woman,” she says, amused that social commentators have assumed MicroMischief is male.
“Women can make art too!
“And I’m someone who had to use art to get through a difficult time.”
Read on to find out:
- How the stickers have been travelling around on planes.
- How MicroMischief manages to make art in secret when out and about.
- How the artist was out-manoeuvred at the Maritime Museum.
- The meaning behind the characters.
Both she and her partner have faced separate health issues, and art has been one way of coping with that.
“I have a chronic illness and it was bad for a few years, so being able to draw on my phone was great,” she says.
MicroMischief sticker people ‘are often me in disguise’
She often works from photos of herself for reference and says: “A lot of them are actually me in disguise.
“I guess I’ve developed a style that makes them recognisable now. That’s because of the limitations of the printer.
“I had to limit it to four shades of grey.”
“I have a tiny sticker printer, small enough to go in my handbag.
“It’s great if I have an idea when I’m out.
“In Aberdeen when I had an idea in the Art Gallery, I went to the cafe, drew it, printed it and stuck it up.
“Then we overheard the staff saying ‘it’s like a treasure hunt, you come back from lunch and see what new ones are up’.
“I don’t think they suspected me but I was right there!”
She put up a sticker of a fisherman at the Maritime Museum.
“All day long we were going around Aberdeen thinking we were so funny for getting stickers up in both museums,” she says.
“Then when we were waiting for the train we saw the fisherman sticker on our backpack.
“We were like, who did this? I wrote a post about it and offered a bag of stickers if they came forward.
“A member of staff admitted it was him. He had come up to us while we were taking a photo and asked if we’d like one of us together.
“All day we thought we were the fly ones. I was really impressed.
“I try to be collaborative in anything I do and make sure people enjoy it.
MicroMischief sticker people include Taylor Swift and an escaped monkey
“There was a rumour Taylor Swift had flown into Inverness Airport and I put up stickers saying ‘secret gig tonight’.
“We like to mess around with current events, like when the monkey escaped in Kingussie.
“It is fun and childish but you have to have fun even as an adult I guess.”
MicroMischief says the interest in her work has “been a bit overwhelming, I’ve had lots of messages”.
“I’m surprised at the age range, people in their 70s and older saying the stickers put a smile on their face.”
She is excited about some future artistic collaborations but is keeping specifics under wraps for now.
“While I do stick things up without permission, I always try to tag the business I’ve put it up in.
“My stickers don’t leave a residue so they won’t harm a surface. I’m careful about what sticker I put up and where.
“It’s nice that a lot of businesses have kept the stickers up.
“Maybe people associate street art with being against the system and rebellious but I think a lot of people respect other people’s property with what they’re doing.
“I like working with other people to take it further or promote their place a little.”
MicroMischief put stickers near the Nuart murals in Aberdeen and at Camden Town in London, which is known for its street art.
She adds: “There are a lot on planes. I had a message from someone saying they had found my sticker on a plane in Frankfurt, where I haven’t been.
“I don’t usually travel but I was in Spain twice this year for business stuff, so I got some stickers up there and in Barcelona.
Stickers given away on planes
“I have a great follower. I’ve not met her in person but she has put them up in Lithuania and a friend took some to Croatia.
“I’ve given some to people on planes and I don’t know where those ended up!
“I have a little team who help me out, who enjoy getting my stickers.”
MicroMischief says she has always liked to make things, and has been “yarn bombing with friends”, where they adorned statues with crochet.
“But since I was ill and had to rest a lot, I couldn’t do a lot. That little app on my phone was great.”
She explains the stickers are about “discovering miniature people doing everyday things as you go about your life”.
“When I was young, looking out of the skylight and seeing the streetlights in Inverness was comforting.
“I wanted to do something good with my life but there was pressure to fix everything, to solve the problems of the world.
“For every light, there were people doing the laundry, making a cup of tea, putting the kids to bed.
“It helped me to relax and know it was OK to enjoy small, everyday things too.
“Not every moment had to be productive and world-changing.
“MicroMischiefs are mirrors of us, reflecting tasks that bring us comfort and connection.
“You have to slow down to appreciate them, as you do for little moments in life.
“It’s a reminder for myself, especially during a time when I had a lot to come to terms with and no concrete answers about the future.
A special sticker for the Hope Project in Aberdeen
“When I find out someone has seen my stickers in the wild it makes my day.
“My favourite was when Kara from the Hope Project in Aberdeen said her participants had enjoyed finding MicroMischiefs as they walked around town.
“She said they enjoyed the everyday aspect. It made me think about how I appreciated being able to do little tasks again after a few years of illness, and maybe they felt similar after time in prison.
“I made a little prisoner sticker; I imagined them going to the shops for the first time.
“One is pushing the other around in a trolley while she eats Pringles. It’s silly but serious too. Celebrating little victories is important.
“The comfort of everyday tasks is what I needed when it felt like life got too big and too serious suddenly.
“I had to focus on each day, each task, to keep moving forward and finding the positive, and to be positive for my partner too.
“Somehow it worked and I can look back and see how far a little humour and art has taken me, and now I have something other people get joy from and can relate to.
“All from a period of grief and change. It’s amazing what we’re capable of getting through even if we can’t imagine it at the time.”
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