About the artist
Kaija MacKinnon is a painter and illustrator from Roebling, New Jersey. She received her 2023 Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration from Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, and is currently working toward her 2026 Master of Fine Arts at the University of Nevada, Reno. Kaija specializes in both oil painting and digital painting, with a focus in picture books and other sequential art. Her work is heavily stylized and narrative driven, often touching on topics of self-reflection and personal identity.
Kaija’s work has been displayed in the 2023 Society of Illustrators Student Exhibition and has been shortlisted for the 2025 Communication Arts Illustration Competition. During her time at Ringling College of Art and Design, her work has also been shown in the Best of Ringling Exhibition throughout 2021, 2022, and 2023. Kaija is currently pursuing a future as an author illustrator within children’s publishing, as well as illustration work in both middle grade and young adult book illustration.
Outside of her own practice, Kaija is also passionate about art education, and is interested in teaching foundations, painting, illustration, and digital media at the college level.
Artist's statement
Story-oriented with a twist of fantasy, my work should feel bookish and nostalgic. I am drawn to picture books as a format and typically follow many elements of sequential art and traditional illustration. Much of my work is character-based or figurative, placed in full environments and dramatic scenes. I often go between digital and oil painting, sometimes in the same piece. I am regularly inspired by many fantasy writers, typically with an underlying eerie weirdness to them, and musicians, particularly ones that evoke a sense of strength and empowerment.
I enjoy creating a simple “slice of life” moment, with a bit of drama and exaggeration. Also very inspired by children’s books, I make this kind of work in hopes that it will give a narrative to your inner child. I would like to connect to people in a way that makes them feel seen in their personal identity and perhaps hidden internal struggles. I want people to read my work as a comfort against big feelings and give the odd one out something to relate to.
My current projects consist of many book cover-inspired paintings, as well as working on the first draft of an untitled picture book, touching on homesickness and the feeling of being lost. An even further project will most likely consist of a graphic novel that explores the feeling of displacement and the discomforts within self-realization and facing your own identity.
