Yari Mena is a local mixed media artist and the office administrator at Peachtree Integrated Psychology. In 2019, she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in Drawing and Painting from Georgia State University, where she developed her technique of hand altering photographs to reflect on memory and relationships.
Yari was a summer camp art instructor at the Clarkston Community Center, located in one of Georgia's most ethnically diverse neighborhoods. She then created a healing arts curriculum for a women and children’s shelter run by the Center for Pan Asian Community Services in Atlanta, GA, while also conducting data analysis and interpreting for Spanish-speaking survivors.
Most recently, Yari was a Studio Assistant at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado, where she provided studio support to the Artists-in-Residence and students from schools in the Roaring Fork Valley visiting the painting and printmaking studios. She provided additional administrative support to the artistic director and the artistic programs manager. In her free time living in the Rocky Mountains, she also learned to wheel throw and work with Adobe Illustrator.
Yari was a recipient of the Anderson Ranch Internship Professional Development Award (2022) and an Honorable Mention awarded by selection of the juror, Hope Cohn, in the 21st Annual Juried Student Exhibition at the Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design (2019).
