We were lucky to catch up with Mikki Ulaszewski recently and have shared our conversation below.

Mikki, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Two and a half years ago I picked up my whole life with my family and moved from Rochester, NY, to Seattle, WA to pursue being a full time artist. In December of 2021 I was recovering from an illness in the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic and working full-time as a graphic designer for a school district. I was so stressed and burnt out that I was having several panic attacks a day. In one swift moment I told my partner we couldn’t resign our lease, we needed to move, I needed to move. I couldn’t spend the rest of my life doing art for others, the same art, the same posters year over year. By that summer we had uprooted our whole life in NY State and were moving to Seattle, WA to start a new life.
In the process of this moved I changed career pathways from design focused to data driven, giving me the ability and creative brain power to pursue my art fully. Within the first year I started to focus and really push to get into the art community; and by 2023 I was able to land a small space at Base Camp Studios in Seattle, WA. A few months later in the summer of 2023 I got my first artist residency in Seattle with the Sweet Dreams Society. I had my first ever solo show in December of 2023, only a year and half after deciding I needed to make the change.
From there its only gone up and up. Exhibiting in multiple shows in Seattle and across the US in the last two years, and doing my first co-curated show in October of 2024. I was hired on by Base Camp Studios, the gallery I have a studio in, to be the community engagement manager and recently having my first solo curated show at Slip Gallery in Seattle, WA, this January 2025.
Picking up and moving my whole life across the country was the best decision I ever made for myself and my art and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Being an artist is in my family. With my grandmother and mother both starting off as artist, they both had to turn and change course to make a living. I grew up around art all the time and have always wanted to be an artist.
My background is in visual media, a combination of photography, graphic design, and art direction, and strategic marketing. I have a BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MS from Roberts Wesleyan College. Working over 10 years as a graphic designer in Rochester, NY, and in multiple different industries, but ending up mainly into the realm of the education sector. After years of doing art for others, I moved across country to pursue art for myself.
I am a mixed media artist, with a heavy focus on painting, sewing, and sculpture. I think I’m a bit different form a lot of artist because of my background. I tend to think large scale when I go into a project, not just the piece, but how to promote it, a series to go with it, how to showcase it.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The biggest goal I have in my art is to make people think. I hope that the pieces I bring forward will make the viewer stop and take another look. Think about how it was made, the context, the materials. I feel a lot of times that there is a lack of critical thinking with current media, my hope is that the pieces, media, and performances I put on will spark that critical thinking and engagement in the viewers head.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

When I was in high school I had an art teacher who told me, that of all the kids in her class, I was the only one she could see becoming a full time artist. I never understood what she meant by that until I decided to take the plunge. There are so many ways to be an artist; are you a vendor, do you make originals, what type of art do you make, do you do shows, galleries, curate your own? The reality is there is no one or right way to be an artist, the only thing there is, is the internal personal drive to keep pushing forward. To keep moving when you get a rejection, or 5 rejections, or 100 rejections. It’s a drive to keep learning, to improve your own skills. The reality is that being an artist is completely shaped by that artist and no one else. However, you have to have that drive to push and make it happen, that is the one thing I now understand from my teacher. She saw the drive in me to keep going, when everyone else left class I was there. When everyone went home, I stayed after to keep working. There’s an internal drive to keep creating, making something out of nothing. Being an artist is one of the most fulfilling and draining things you can do, and I personally wouldn’t have it any other way.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://designbymikki.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/designbymikki/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mercedesulaszewski/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@designbymikki
• Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@designbymikki
  I know its getting banned, but if it doesnt.