About Mary
Programs Mary uses
Procreate
Sketchup Pro
AutoCAD
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Lightroom
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Premiere
Adobe After Effects
Final Cut Pro
CapCut
Canva
BIOGRAPHY
Mary Milliken (they/them) is a painter, illustrator, educator, and content creator specializing in handmade gestural artwork with bright colors and textures. They have over 15 years professional experience making art for schools, businesses, events, and markets. Mary’s work utilizes myriad media to create stylized portraits, zines, landscapes, and abstract art. They are inspired by Neo-Expressionism as well as their region, living in a fat body, mental health, and queerness. In 2020, Mary began drawing live portraits to connect with people while social distancing. Since then, they have done hundreds of portraits of people and pets throughout the United States.
Artist statement
My style is versatile and oscillates materials and media – acrylic, watercolor, ink, paper, and canvas. Mixed media interests me because it is sculptural, tangible, requires many skills, encourages experimentation, and results in a feast for the eyes. Designing for a company that made artwork by hand showed me how art becomes more human when you introduce room for error.
My art focuses on beauty in chaos, mundanity, and mindful appreciation. I document what feels beautiful to a queer LA transplant – the social connection of a portrait or a captured landscape in an ever-changing city. Light is used to highlight natural geometric shapes while juxtaposing chaotic linework and loose brush strokes. I digitally augment my hand-made artwork to transform my work without ever destroying the original.
My challenge is getting back to before – before learning the “right” ways. Focusing on “right” is what created my anorexia, kept me in my hometown, and stopped me from living my full truth. Graffiti, fatness, poverty, eating disorders, queerness, and grief are subjects that are avoided; thus, I actively feature those ideas in my work to continue processing, grieving, and growing.
I grew up appreciating the work of Mary Cassatt: soft, loose depictions of light, landscapes, flowers, and intimate, fleshy scenes that were not exclusive to the White male gaze. The work of Toulouse-Lautrec depicting Parisian nightlife would influence my depictions of LA and queer performers. Later, living in Chicago introduced me to playful, satirical, and political styles of the Chicago Imagists and Neo-Expressionism.
EXHIBITIONS & features
Folklore LA, Featured Artist, March-June, Los Angeles, CA (2024)
Fruit Slice Quarterly Magazine, Issue #2, Featured Artwork, Los Angeles, CA (2024)
Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery’s Apophenia, Los Angeles, CA (2023)
Memorial Art Gallery’s 67th Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition, Rochester, NY (2021)
Tri-County Arts Council’s Southern Tier Biennial, Olean, NY (2021)
The Rockwell Museum’s The Face Mask As Canvas Exhibition, Corning, NY (2020)
Arnot Art Museum’s 76th Regional Competition, Elmira, NY (2019)
Selection mural artist, Quiet Support, Elmira, NY (2018)
Portrait Interrupted: Recycling and Renewing the Personal, Solo Exhibition, Corning, NY (2017)
Featured Work, Arnot Art Museum’s 75th Regional Competition, Elmira, NY (2016)
