Mikki Jay: A Retrospective

Mikki Jay is an artist, and therapist/art therapist living and working in Chicago. Her work comes forth intuitively as a vehicle to process emotions and ideas. She works in an illustrative style with dense mark-making, a meticulous and arduous process that allows the mind to quiet and wander. Her work veers from colorful psychedelia to confessional meditations on love, loss, and the passage of time. She has completed an illustrative series on the tarot and the seasons, taking inspiration from the lessons of earth-centered spirituality and archetypal psychology. Her paintings are somewhat of a visual diary, using self-portraiture as a way to encapsulate a moment and become a source of strength in life’s inevitable ebbs and flows.

In addition to painting, she also alters clothing through bleach and tie dye and dabbles in screen printing. She graduated with a Masters' Degree in Counseling and Art Therapy in 2022 and has worked for seven years in various mental health settings, including a therapeutic day school, substance use treatment facility, and community mental health agency with youth and adults. She takes inspiration from the diversity and complexity of the human mind. She uses art to connect to others and facilitate their expression and growth. In her work life, she has run art therapy groups in addition to doing individual art therapy.

Marty Lash is an artist and teacher operating out of his hovel in Berwyn, Illinois.  He likes exploring geometry, proportion, heritage, and divinity through sculpture.  His main mediums are stained glass and steel,  but he has also incorporated wood, found objects, light, and yesterday’s trash in his works.  Marty draws inspiration from architecture, the sands of time, industry, mystery, cycles, and the sun.

Miles Burke is a Chicago based sculptor with a background in painting. He uses uncommon materials to form ethereal sculptures that take on an otherworldly quality. Process plays a large role in his work, letting drastic changes dictate the direction of the pieces, treating them like three dimensional paintings. Influences in his work vary and tend to draw from nature as well as yogic practices and B- horror movies.