BY KEELIN EVERLY-LANG for WEEKLY VOLCANO | 8/7/2026
Whimsical fairies, mermaids and adventurous hamsters sparkle across multidisciplinary Tacoma artist Kcie Monk’s portfolio.
In a word, her portfolio is prolific. Much of her recent work is created digitally, but she still incorporates watercolor, alcohol markers, colored pencil and other media as well.
Before some health changes took away her access to the instrument, Kcie’s art also included playing French horn, and she even graduated with a degree in music performance.
“I don’t really feel like I could be a person without being an artist at the same time,” Kcie told Weekly Volcano.
One of her many current art series includes local Tacoma mascots inspired by Japan’s yuru kyara (ゆるキャラ), regional mascots created since the early 2000s to promote local governments, products and events.
Kcie lived in Japan for almost two years, teaching English through the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program, or JET Program.
During her time living there and during a visit before she moved there, she loved collecting the regional mascots. Now that she is back in Tacoma, she’s done two different series embodying various landmarks through personifications of the city.
One features fluid dancers in a more pen-and-ink style, while another leans more toward the cutesy style of the yuru kyara mascots, dressing her figures in digital dresses depicting classic Tacoma landmarks.
Kcie was born and raised in Tacoma, and one of her first introductions to art and painting was following along with Bob Ross with her mom.
“When I was, like, I don’t know, five, we’d set up little canvases in front of the TV, and she’d have us paint along with Bob Ross,” Kcie said.
“I still paint trees in the style that he did,” Kcie said.
For a long time, visual art was a hobby in the background, and she only started to take it seriously as a career a few years ago.
The motivation for this came from a few different sources.
Kcie said part of the thought process came from the thought that “life is kind of short. Maybe I should actually do what I really am passionate about.”
Another push came from the health challenges that changed her ability to play music, which impacted her in a big way.
“Not having any access to it at all for at least the first year was really depressing, honestly. I think just because it’s been so much a part of my life,” Kcie said.
Although she hadn’t followed up her music performance degree by focusing on it as a career, it had still given her so many amazing experiences and an outlet for expression. Art seemed like an opportunity to have this back and pursue it as a career.
“I didn’t pursue my horn seriously, so I thought maybe I can do this seriously and really focus on art,” Kcie said.
Digital art has been an important aspect of that goal, not only because of the convenience and accessibility of the art form but also because she wanted to be prepared if her physical challenges progressed and she lost access to more traditional art forms.
“Who knows what could happen in the future. . . . Maybe I could lose my hands or something, and I might not be able to do art in the same way,” Kcie said of learning to create digital art.
These days, she enjoys digital art for its convenience as well.
“It’s a lot less messy. . . . You have so many tools at your fingertips. You have brushes in there, you have markers and pencils, and they all look pretty similar to the traditional media. You also have, like, the full, like, spectrum of color on there, and you don’t have to mix the colors,” Kcie said.
With all that being said, it can be hard to get the textures she always wants in digital media.
Digital art can be great for creating art out in the world. One thing she does frequently is draw in coffee shops, and that is much easier than lugging all of her other art supplies out and about.
In addition to expanding her artistic skill set, Kcie has been building her professional acumen by attending business classes through Spaceworks and the University of Puget Sound, applying to vend at local events and even participating in local art projects such as the Weekly Volcano newspaper box challenges.
One major leap landed her a table at Emerald City Comic Con.
“I was totally out of my league for that. . . . I didn’t have enough stuff for it, and I didn’t plan very well,” Kcie said. Despite this, she was able to connect with many artists and other people whom she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet otherwise.
That leap paid off, although she wasn’t expecting much. Many people took her business cards, and a few weeks later, an author reached out and offered her first opportunity to illustrate a children’s book.
That first book was called Faemiliars and is by Adam Ross. It is about overcoming communication and learning barriers through a magical wizard named Maggie.
Since then, she’s illustrated a follow-up called Faemiliars: A Difficult Day, also by Adam Ross, and another story called The Girl with No Tail by Barry Gorden.
Kcie has also shared her art through local markets and run into one of the challenges of digital art amid the current avalanche of AI-generated creations: people questioning whether she actually made the pieces she shares.
While she’s never been directly accused, she has had people at markets ask her whether the art was created by her or generated by an algorithm. This inspired her to start recording and livestreaming her creative process on Twitch.
“I wanted to have a backup in case. . . . I also do mixed media and stuff too, so I do have a lot of these traditional media as well as the digital art,” Kcie said.
Streaming her art on Twitch has also brought her more unexpected global connections that add to the many international friendships she made during her teaching program in Japan. In addition to her friends from Australia and Canada through that program, Twitch has now brought her a group of regular fans and friends from Finland and other countries.
Kcie shared that traveling and connecting with those outside the U.S. has been a really positive experience, often giving her a “whole different perspective that I never even thought about, either the view of the U.S. or even the view of the world in general. . . . It’s been a really interesting cultural awakening.”
When she isn’t actively creating or sharing art, Kcie works at the Tacoma Dome and often brings stories from her experiences there to her streaming audiences while she creates art.
You’ll also be able to see Kcie’s art at the upcoming Art on the Ave from noon to 7 p.m. Aug. 9 in the Sixth Avenue Business District, where her latest painted newspaper box will be displayed alongside work by other local artists at the Weekly Volcano tent near MSM Deli.
Follow Kcie on Twitch and Instagram at @kcie_mo to see more of her art.
