Kevin S. "Kiki" Merigian

In 1956, Kevin S. Merigian was born to a lower middle class working family in the inner-city of Detroit Michigan. For the most part, he and his brother and sister were reared by their grandmother and father in a small home in the impoverished city of Highland Park, Michigan. His true academic journey began with a scholarship to a suburban college preparatory high school in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The educational community was named Cranbrook. He excelled in the arts and sciences. He desired to play football in college and become an artist. His father disagreed with his quest to follow in the footsteps of those artisans who made Cranbrook a divine educational community. He was accepted to Kalamazoo College, where he played football. At his father's insistence, he pursued his undergraduate studies in pre-med. During the Fall of his senior year, he was accepted to the College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University. He ultimately graduated from Michigan State in 1982 with an M.D. degree.

Merigian's uncle taught at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. His artist brother graduated with a BFA from the University of Michigan. His grandmother was remarkably skilled in the Armenian Culinary Arts as well as an exceptional seamstress. Kevin's passion was always the creative arts. At one time, every patient who visited him as a physician in his clinic received a hand painted thank you card for their patronage. Over time, he spent six to eight hours every Sunday painting cards just to keep up with the demand.

Throughout the years, he devoted much of his free time to writing short stories, poetry, writing songs, painting and sculpting. Currently, he has painted over 400 works, he has written over 250 poems and has created over 150 sculptures in wood, bronze, stone and steel. He has had both formal and informal training in pottery, sculpture, and drawing. He is currently finishing his first serial killer suspense novel that he hopes to have published in the Winter of 2015.

He has shown his works in a number of Memphis venues. The Germantown Performing Arts Center exposition was his second solo show in Memphis. These works are representative of his most recent acrylic abstracts. His current style of painting is a refined form of abstract expressionism using bright, bold colors. He has also perfected the art of syringe painting.

The goal of each work of art is to explore the unforeseen harmonies of color as they seek to find settlement, just as each of us attempts to find answers to the emotional, metaphysical and physical forces in our lives. There are no forced arrangements in life or in his paintings. Those who view his works will find that the overall projection incorporates an emphasis of individual detail that contributes to the whole. The holonistic structures of nature are well-represented. He has tried to capture the randomness of emergent systems through fractals. Observers draw upon their personal experiences to interpret the art in whatever capacity is available to them. Their findings and conclusions exposes their own internal emotional forces that relate to their personal world view. It will not be that of the artist.