Meet Mikayla

Education

I started my college career as an Interior Design major. I soon switched to Studio Art but I will forever be interested in how spaces influence the human mind. In 2018 I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Johnson State College and then in 2020 I received a Master of Fine Arts degree at Northern Vermont University, Johnson. 

I began to start playing with spaces with my BFA thesis exhibit where I created an 8’X8′ wooden box with a door on each wall. Three doors opened to paintings but the fourth door opened to the space inside the box. Inside the box each wall was painted with various canvas paintings on top. The idea of playing with spaces and seeing how people react to different environments is very intriguing to me. We don’t realize it but every single day our moods are affected by the spaces we are in. By changing color, size, lights, and sounds in a space it can influence how someone acts or feels. Spaces can influence how productive we are and can change how we interact with people within the space. 

In my MFA Exhibit I played with sculptures, paint and light. I’m intrigued by the idea of light bouncing off of paint and changing its color. With sculptures on top of my paintings, it adds another dimension in which the lights can flow and bounce off of. I also used clear materials such as vellum and plexiglass, to play with the way light is shining through. With the body of work that I exhibited for my MFA show I wanted to immerse the viewer into another reality that I sculpted and curated. I wanted to evoke emotion from the viewer when they are completely engulfed in light, color, and sound. 

Currently

I’ve been showing many of my pieces around Vermont. Keep an eye out around Burlington and you may see some of my art!