Mignonette Yin Cheng has been honoured with considerable regional, national, and international awards and exhibitions. Her work is represented in numerous private and public collections, such as Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Missouri; Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan; and Proctor & Gamble, Cincinnati, Ohio. Born in Amoy, China, in 1933, Mignonette received her initial training at the Russian Art Academy in Shanghai and Chao Shao-An Studio in Hong Kong. In 1958, Mignonette received a full scholarship to attend Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, cum laude. One year later, she completed her thesis and a solo exhibition, Chinese Painting and Western Emblems: A Comparative Study, and received a Master of Fine Art degree. She was a professor emerita of painting at the University of Michigan School of Art & Design, having taught there for more than 30 years. "In her irrepressible joy of painting and teaching, Mignonette Yin Cheng combined both Western and Eastern disciplines to form a singular vision," writes Renee M. Yin Cheng in her insightful and detailed essay.
In addition to gaining mastery with watercolors, Cheng also produced striking oil, gouache, and wax-emulsion collage pieces. She passed away in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2009.