Kira Mardikes by Howard Tran
EDUCATION and TRAINING
Bachelor of Fine Arts - School of the Art Institute of Chicago 2008 - 2012
Studied abroad at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, CAN 2011
WHERE TO FIND MY WORK
Bayside Gallery, Old Alcohol Plant Inn, Port Hadlock, WA
Port Angeles Fine Art Center Giftshop, Port Angeles, WA
Port Townsend Farmers Markets - Find the merch art I made for the market! Also I vend select Saturdays April-December 2025
See Market Dates on my Event Page
Chimacum Corner Store, Chimacum, WA
Hearth Natural Medicine, Port Townsend, WA
SKILLS
Drawing
Realistic to cartoon drawing skills in pen and ink and graphite
Design
Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, vector design and image manipulation. Experience working with screenprinters, digital and offset printing. Experience in packaging design.
Textiles
Vat dying, block printing, Eco-printing, resist, and katazome among others skills.
Painting
Large murals and portraiture. Acrylic and watercolor.
Printmedia
Woodblock printing and screenprinting. Experience with offset printing.
Comics and Narrative
Pen and ink comics, small publishing, and story-boarding for film
CONTACT
Feel free to contact me here.
Follow along and see what's new: Instagram @kiraplantart
PRESS
‘Edible Landscape; Feeds Community by Lily Haight, Port Townsend Leader, April 15, 2020
Inaugural Food and Flower Show Opens Today, Peninsula Daily News, April 14, 2019
CREDITS and THANKS
Meryl Vedros - Design and logo advice
Hudson Gardner - Web design, Photography
Tassie Ryland - Photography
Anna Pallotta - Web design, photography
Howard Tran - Photography
“Kira Mardikes’ artistry begins in the soil. From there, it vines its way through a myriad of mediums, blossoming into illustrations, comic book stories, murals, sips of herbal tea, and botanically dyed wearables. Her business, Westwind Botanicals, emerged from this intersection of diverse yet related passions, strung together by a common thread of deep caring for beauty, health, and connection to the earth.” - by Holly Erikson for JCFM
Kira Mardikes is an Olympic Peninsula based artist whose work is deeply influenced by her love of botanical life and humans relationship to nature. She grew up going to a bilingual Japanese-American school in Portland, OR and was shaped by her family’s love of craft and gardening. One grandfather was a Greek American passionate about photography. Her other grandfather was an accomplished novelist of Native American fiction and master carver of bone and wood in the Coastal Tlingit & Haida style. Her grandmothers on both sides were artists. One in Greek Orthodox iconography and the other as a potter who was a founding member of the Contemporary Craft gallery in Portland, OR
In 2012 Kira received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she focused on telling stories inspired by the contrast of urban and rural life through comics, animation, and print media. She then moved to New Orleans and started doing commission murals, poster art and illustrations for independent presses. She traveled the country and Mexico sharing her art through murals, postcards and prints. Learning about the Gulf Coast’s dead zone, the petrochemical industry, and the reality of pollution along the Mississippi River and through agricultural land in the US is what inspired Kira to begin organic farming on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington while also working as a local illustrator. She has published zines on Organic agriculture, comics inspired by mythology, and continues to create artwork inspired by local plants and animals.
Through her interest in farming she learned about natural dying and has created hundreds of botanically dyed bandanas themed around local plants and animals. She has taught classes in botanical dying and exhibited work at Northwind Art Gallery, Bayside Gallery and the Field Hall in Port Angeles.
In tandem with her own artistic expression she does graphic design, logo illustration, packaging design, tattoo art and murals for regional clients. Some of which are listed below.
Finnriver Cidery, Chimacum, WA
Jefferson County Farmers Market, WA
The Chimacum Corner Farmstand, Chimacum, WA
Longhouse for the People, Quilcene, WA
Sound Mandala, Kansas City, MO
Jack Tierney, Musician, Port Townsend, WA
Wet Meadows, Central CA
Cascara Gardens, Portland, OR
Shatoiya De La Tour, Sequim, WA
Organic Seed Alliance, Chimacum, WA
Old Alcohol Plant Hotel, Port Hadlock, WA
The North Olympic Salmon Coalition, Chimacum WA
Friends of the Trees Botanicals, Port Hadlock, WA
Kodama Farm and Food Forest, Chimacum, WA
Moonlight Market, Bainbridge Island, WA
Flutter by Pizza Pie, Chimacum, WA
Weed Eater, Greak Lakes Region
Little Wings Farm, Eugene, OR
Arthur Magazine, Joshua Tree, CA
Laura Hill Massage, Portland, OR
The Raging Pelican Journal of Gulf Coast Resistance, New Orleans, LA
Soul Cedar Farm, Quilcene, WA
Ramble Botanicals, Marrowstone, WA