Meet Kiti Myu of Phoenix

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kiti Myu

Hi Kiti, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Art was my first love. It was the one thing I was always good at and in my family, I am known as the artist. During my early education, it was my favorite subject in school and I would always be the art teacher’s favorite, referred by them into special art programs and such. I am mainly self-taught, learning by eye with theory and history learned in the classroom. It’s such a critical part of who I am. I was always creating as a kid, constantly drawing with a sketchbook in hand. I never realized it at the time but all the dedication I had towards art as a child was my way of processing my childhood traumas. Today, I am still using it as a form of therapy that helps me process any mental roadblocks and continues to heal my inner child so I can create some of my most vulnerable and honest work as an adult. I am trying to keep the promises I made to myself and reach the goals I had growing up. I feel like I have figured out my technique, rediscovered my creativity, and found my true self again. According to my friends and family, you can see this through my artwork. It’s been an interesting journey as the first-generation, eldest daughter of Mexican immigrants. Art isn’t really something that most of us are allowed to explore. But I am proud to say that it has opened some amazing doors for me in my life, from funding my Associate’s in Fine Arts degree to finally participating in my first professional exhibition. Art has saved my life several times and has given me purpose and motivation to keep going to see where else it’ll take me.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Absolutely not, the road has been potholed, flooded, and even closed for construction along the way. However, I have learned so much from these artistic struggles. I’ve dealt with many of the normal challenges: artist block, lack of funds, balancing responsiblities with creating art, fear of being seen, etc. It would be like this for years, so much so that at times I even suppressed my creativity, but when I started my personal journey of healing — I had the urge to start creating again. It’s like I went insane in the best way. Ideas would flood into my brain and live there until they were sketched on paper, work that would takes weeks now took a few days, my hands would start listening to my brain and make the marks I would envision, I was even filling up a sketchbook for the first time in years. When I decided that instead of focusing on what was going wrong in my life, I would start by gathering the courage to simply create, even if it was “bad art,” and put my true, authentic self within my work. Ignoring algorithms and social media was a very crucial part of this, as it allowed me to focus on creating the work that made me happy first.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I consider myself a fine artist and illustrator with a focus in oil paint and digital art. I have a deep love for both — and as the Gemini I am — have been trying to find a middle ground or a way to combine the two to develop my own personal style. Since my childhood was interrupted in ways no kid should have to deal with, my work is very autobiographical in the cutest way possible, making up for lost moments in my youth. I work mainly in the color pink which I disliked growing up but has now become my signature and a color which I find soothing and empowering. Some of the subjects in my work include self-portraits, my cats, or pop culture references which fellow gamer/anime enthusiasts would recognize. Combining the traditional practices of art with the media and interests that I grew up with as a millennial. My digital work has transformed into my own little narrative which I named NIKUSU♡MEW (or Nikusu Loves Mew), it’s about a young pink-haired goth girl, her dedication to her two black cats, and their fun little adventures. I was inspired to create this by my own two black cats: Nyx and Lux, and it merges two things I truly love: art and cats. I guess you could consider this a web comic or sorts and I often design merchandise for it such as shirts and stickers. Building the story I want to tell and transforming it into a potential brand that can one day have a booth at Phoenix Fan Fusion for example, is one of the goals I have on my list. As a wife, mother, and full-time student finishing her Bachelor’s in Art Education, my schedule is jammed packed with things to do, so reserving time to create and work on my projects is very important to me.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Before Covid-19 hit, I remember I was preparing for my first major college-level student art show… and the opportunity was taken away from me. While this is nothing compared to what others lost during this heavy period in time, as an artist it was still disappointing. I had everything ready, the idea, the sketch, the large-scale canvas, the motivation, even the guest artist who would serve as a judge that year was a Chicana like myself and the piece I was submitting would’ve resonated with them! Then bam, lockdown. Nothing but online exhibitions at my school for a while and an unfinished piece that never saw the light of day. The situation led me to believe that I wasn’t worthy of the future I was envisioning, that I didn’t deserve good things. Fast forward to today, I actually participated in my first professional exhibition titled “Como Las Flores” with fellow artists Wendy Hernandez (@nonysgarden), Sabrina Apostol (@sabpostol), and Isaiah Verduzco (@angrey_eyes) hosted by Luna Culture Lab (@lunaculturelab) this past July. During installation, I randomly remembered that stolen show and here I was, filling the walls of a professional gallery. I’m a big believer of “what’s meant for you is already yours” but you have to keep working towards that for it to manifest. I think if I had let myself quit after losing the opportunity for that previous show, I wouldn’t have had the chance at a professional exhibition. Because I persevered, I received what I wanted but better!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kitimyu.bigcartel.com/
• Instagram: @KitiMyu @NikusuMew
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikusumew
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/nikusumew