Meg Kaczyk’s work is informed by the natural world, contemporary poetry, meditation practice and life’s transitions — consciously uncovering joy, grief, gratitude and presence found in everyday life.
Meg’s 30-year career in the creative arts includes fine art, creative direction, graphics, arts administration and teaching. She began as an illustrator and designer in the Midwest, graduating from Kendall School of Design in Grand Rapids and working in print and publication in Detroit. In the ‘80s Meg moved west to Portland, exhibiting her paintings in galleries and public venues, and working as a creative director in tech marketing. Now based in Port Townsend, Washington on the Olympic Peninsula, Meg exhibits regionally, and teaches creative process classes designed to grow each artist’s personal expression.
Writing has always been an important personal, as well as professional practice. But until the last few years, Meg’s creative focus has been on the visual arts. In her recent work, writing is interwoven across disciplines, guiding inquiry and themes, both visual and written.
Meg’s memoir, “Notes from Next to the Bed: A love story in words & pictures” launched in September 2024. The book and its paintings exhibited at Jefferson Museum of Art + History, April-July 2025. For more information about the book, purchasing or scheduling a presentation/talk, please email.
Other recent highlights include a series of oil paintings entitled “Favorite Things” at The Grover Gallery in Summer 2024; and a solo show “Some Mornings”, inspired by poems by Linda M. Robertson on themes of transcendence and loss, in March 2022.
Read some writing excerpts
Read my sketchbook blog for insight into process and influences.
Visit me on Instagram for regular posts on work in progress.
BIOGRAPHY
Born 1957 Long Island, New York
1964-1981 Detroit, Michigan
1982-2016 Portland, Oregon
2016-Present Port Townsend, WA
SOLO SHOWS
(Scheduled) March-June 2027. Notes from Next to the Bed: A caregiving love story in words & pictures, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Bainbridge Island, WA
(Scheduled) May 2026. Still, Life. Aurora Loop Gallery, Port Townsend, WA
April-August 2025. Notes from Next to the Bed: A caregiving love story in words & pictures, Jefferson Museum of Art + History, Port Townsend, WA
2022. Some Mornings, Grover Gallery, Port Townsend, WA
2020. Carnegie Reading Room, Port Townsend Public Library, WA
2018. Taps at the Guardhouse, Fort Worden, Port Townsend, WA
2015. Stonehenge Gallery, Portland, OR
2012. Stonehenge Gallery, Portland, OR
2011. Eastbank Center, Portland, OR
2009. Moreland Gallery, Portland, OR
2008. Moreland Gallery, Portland, OR
2008. Tilde, Portland, OR
2007. Portland City Hall, Portland, OR
2007. Onda Gallery, Portland, OR
2001. In Her Image Gallery, Portland, OR
2000. Art Home Gallery, Portland, OR
1999. Art Home Gallery, Portland, OR
1998. In Her Image Gallery, Portland, OR
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITS
August 2025. Potluck Banquet, Northwind Art, Port Townsend, WA
April 2025. Ars Poetica, Northwind Art, Port Townsend, WA
July/August 2024. The Grover Gallery, Port Townsend, WA
2024, 2019, 2018. Open Studio Tour, Port Townsend, WA
August 2021. Resilient & Creative, Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, Port Angeles, WA
June 2021. Lost Words: A Juried Exhibit of Art and Poetry, Northwind Art Best Gallery, Port Townsend, WA
2019. Artist Showcase, Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA
2018. Artist Showcase, Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA
June-July 2020. Founder & Faculty Exhibit. PTSA Grover Gallery, Port Townsend, WA
Spring-Summer 2020. Spring Exhibit, Jansen Art Center, Lynden, WA
January-June 2020. Contemporary Northwest Landscapes, Lynnwood Convention Center, WA
April-July 2019. Port Townsend School of the Arts Faculty Exhibition, Phyllis Lamphere Gallery, Washington State Convention Center, Seattle, WA
October 2018. Perspectives on Landscape, Juror Merit Award, Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA
June 2017. Alchemy of the Abstract VIII, Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA
2016-2018. Member, Gallery 9, Port Townsend, WA
2013. Artists Among Us, Trinity Cathedral, Portland, OR
2012. Artists Among Us, Trinity Cathedral, Portland, OR
2009. Annie Meyer Gallery, Portland, OR
2009. Spring Awakenings, Onda Gallery, Portland, OR
2009. Maryhill Museum Festival of Art, Goldendale, WA
2009. Puget Sound West Coast Art Exhibition, Seattle, WA
WRITING
January 2025. Three poems, Ars Poetica, Western Washington manuscript
April 2025. Author Talk, Jefferson County Museum of Art & History, Port Townsend, WA
January 2025. Book Reading and Talk, Jefferson County Public Library, Port Hadlock, WA
September 2024. Book launch, Notes from Next to the Bed, A caregiving love story in words & pictures, Sunrise Coffee, Port Townsend, WA
2019. The Intersection of Art and the Environment, essay/report from artist and conservationists roundtable, Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA
2018. Artist Talk: Ways to Inspiration, Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA
2018. Artist Talk: Ways to Inspiration, Port Ludlow Art League, Port Ludlow, WA
1977. College Poetry Review, Poem: You Are Not My Knight, National Poetry Press, CA
COLLECTIONS
2025. Jefferson Healthcare, Port Townsend, WA
RESIDENCIES
January 2025. Centrum, Fort Worden, Port Townsend, WA
October 2021, September 2024. Playa at Summer Lake, OR
May 2019. Centrum, Fort Worden, Port Townsend, WA
TEACHING
(Scheduled) June 2026. Pacific Northwest Abstract, Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Otis, OR
2017-present. Creative process workshops, Northwind Art School, Port Townsend, WA
2025. Pacific Northwest Abstract, Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Otis, OR
2025. Art Journaling for Self-Care workshop, Jefferson Healthcare Hospice Volunteers, Port Townsend, WA
2025. Summer camp art journaling workshop for teens, The Benji Project, Port Townsend, WA
2025. Natural Abstraction workshop, Art League Academy at Hilton Head, SC
2024. Inspired Desert Abstract, Playa at Summer Lake, OR
2018. Art Workshops for Unhoused Individuals, Operation Nightwatch, Portland, OR
2002-2004. Art Facilitator, New Avenues for Youth Reception Center, Portland, OR
RELATED ART AFFILIATIONS
2021-2022. Strategy & Education Director, Northwind Art, Port Townsend, WA
2020-2021. Communications Director, Port Townsend School of the Arts, Port Townsend, WA
2018-2020. Board Member, Port Townsend School of the Arts, Port Townsend, WA
1985-2008. Designer, Kalakendra Society for the Performing Arts of India, Portland, OR
1986-1989. Illustrator/Designer, Homowa African Arts & Culture Foundation, Portland, OR
1986-1988. Designer, Young Audiences of Oregon and Washington
EDUCATION
November 2025. To Study the Self, Zen and the Art of Creative Writing workshop with Ruth Ozeki, Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Barre, MA
1985. Lithography and Etching Printmaking series with Tom Prochaska, NW College of Art, Portland, OR
1978. Illustration/Design, Kendall School of Design, Grand Rapids, MI
PRESS
The Jefferson County Beacon, August 26, 2024, “The Intersectionality of Grief”
Port Townsend Leader, August 19, 2020, ” ‘Art in the Hospital’ Brings Beauty to Jefferson Healthcare”
Port Townsend Leader, May 22, 2019, “Space and Time”
Port Townsend Leader, January 30, 2019, “Leading with the Brush”
Port Townsend Leader, January 9, 2018, “The Art of Encouragement”
Artist photo credit: Chuck Moses