MERBOH BY Mye Coates
Mye Coates is a Washington, D.C.-based graphic artist whose work is a fusion of design, metaphysics and human potential. She travels the world, drawing inspiration from the ordinary—everyday objects whose innate beauty is often eclipsed by their utility. Her work has been exhibited in Amsterdam, Washington, D.C., New York, and Virginia, leading to commissioned projects across northern Maryland.
With a deep understanding of design principles—layout, color theory, and imagery—Mye crafts a distinctive visual narrative steeped in the Hermetic principles of Correspondence and Mentalism. These ancient laws suggest that the external world (matter) is merely a reflection of the internal world (thoughts and emotions), revealing a profound truth: human beings are far more powerful than they’ve been led to believe. This belief is woven into her artistic practice, where she intentionally works with contrasting materials—hard vs. soft, matte vs. shiny, flat vs. multidimensional—because she sees contrast as a portal to deeper self-exploration. For example, without the sour, how would we identify a preference for the sweet? Without the dark, how would we recognize the light?
In 2020, Mye founded MERBOH Art Lab (short for mercantile bohemian), a creative space dedicated to experimental artistry. Her ethos is captured in a single quote by Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke: “Where I create, there I am true.” Mye’s compositions lean futuristic, unconventional, and slightly offbeat, but at its core, her work is about self-empowerment—a reminder that each of us is the architect and builder of our own reality. For Mye, the true magic of being an artist lies in seeing the world through an abstract lens—disrupting order, dissolving boundaries, and allowing new patterns, meaning, and appreciation to emerge.