Kacey Miyagami

Kacey Miyagami is an artist working in the furry genre. She holds a BFA from the University of Southern California with a minor in traditional animation. She is married to Ayukawataur. She was guest of honor at Furry Connection North 2011, and Artist Guest of Honor at Furlandia 2014.

Biography
Born Kimberly C. Maltzman in Southern California in 1981, Kacey has dedicated the majority of her life to perfecting her art.

With influences from her mother, a former commercial artist, grandmother, a painter, sister, a multitalented artist, and traditional inspiration such as Disney and Pixar, she quickly picked up on techniques for drawing animals. Many of these influences and techniques are visibly apparent in her work throughout the majority of her art career, only recently being replaced by methods of her own.

She started in a public school, but when the riots of Los Angeles occurred in 1992, her family placed her in The Buckley School. There she remained until she graduated.

While at Buckley, she was exposed to Sailor Moon and other various anime. She also found she did not have many friends, or fit in with any crowds and turned to her art. It was then that she realized her desire to be an artist would make her perfect for being an animator. Though she continued her animal drawings, she started drawing more often, including people and expanding her awareness by taking classes in life drawing.

During this time she also came to know Miyagami Noriko through a mutual friend in Pennsylvania. Noriko quickly became a quasi-mentor figure to Kacey; later becoming her girlfriend and finally her wife on October 12, 2004.

After Buckley, Kacey attended University of Southern California where she obtained her degree, a Bachelor of Fine Arts as well as a minor in traditional animation. It was during this time Kacey set forth to finding a way to apply her skills and earn money for her daily necessities and a friend introduced her to Furbid where her unique style was able to garner good prices.

In order to keep up with competition she started investing in better materials, doing greater detail, and creating the quickest turnaround time possible without sacrificing quality. In no time she decided she wanted to raise the bar of what was acceptable for quality in the furry fandom. To do this she knew she would have to dedicate herself to art above everything else.

Her original intent was to graduate from college with her degree and moving into a career in traditional animation. However, there were extreme changes in her chosen field during her time in college which virtually left room only for computer animators.

Kacey was offered jobs in a number of studios, but in the intervening years, she decided she illustration where her attention to detail would be appreciated the most, was her true passion.

She continued as an artist doing exclusively traditional illustration until November 2007, when she purchased a Wacom Intuos3. Kacey felt, in order to expand her horizons, and skill, as an artist, she should be willing to experiment with more styles and media. Her use of the tablet is limited to sketch ideas for commissions and digital avatar icons. She continues working a minimum of forty hours a week, often more than sixty.

She would like to learn to work with gouache.

Legal issues
In early 2002, Kacey was targeted by a fan for distribution of her artwork without her authorization. This situation quickly escalated, spiraling out of control requiring the need for legal intervention.