Welcome to Short Answer Sunday, an interview series where I ask artists, art adjacent individuals, and other interesting, creative people the same set of questions. With the intent of getting to know the person behind the artwork as well generating new avenues to artistic discovery, participants respond with a few words or an artist’s name, always with the opportunity to elaborate if they wish!
Guys, say hello to Katherine Knight. Katherine is a delightful human, a long-time friend and an artist + professor that I truly look up to. Longstanding readers (aka the real heads) will know that she is also a co-founder of the Art Habit blog and a member of my artist support group (remember that thing you need that you don’t think you need?).
Katherine’s figurative paintings and drawings are exquisite and she is always pushing the boundaries of what is possible, with scale, material and installation. I love hearing about her material research—how to manipulate fabric to look like snake skin, how to find the perfect fabric to simulate pool water, how to unify hand-knit elements with drawing on paper, how to work with horse hair, etc., etc. It is mesmerizingly cool and a good reminder that an artist’s research takes many forms and usually starts with a question and lots and lots of experimentation in the studio. As you soon will see, she’s also a great storyteller and had me laughing to the point of tears many times during her Short Answer Sunday.
It’s the first Sunday of Virgo season and Short Answer Sunday drew its first breath on the first Sunday of Pisces season. For my readers not versed in astrology, this means that we now have a half a year of Short Answer Sundays under our belts. Tomorrow is the start of Fall semester and my first day of classes. This year (ahem), I have taken on some new responsibilities at work and I’ve just found out I’ll likely have another solo show next year (won’t say more at this juncture for fear of jinxing, but more soon, I promise). All this is to say that Short Answer Sunday will be moving into freewheeling mode with a more intermittent schedule for a while, and a big break at the beginning of the semester.
Anyways, Short Answer Sunday partially owes her existence to Katherine Knight and Nikki Painter, because it was through my conversations with them that I realized how interesting this project could be (our answers were all so different)! Ginormously grateful to Katherine and everyone who has participated thus far.
For more about Katherine and her work, go to her website and follow her on Instagram.
xo, Lauren
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Name: Katherine Knight
Occupation: Associate Professor of Art
Astrological data: Pices. Picees? How do you even spell it? Pieces?
Hometown: Columbia, SC
Current location: Washington, DC
Other than Instagram, how do you find new-to-you artists?
From my friends!
An artwork that makes you laugh?
My students make me laugh all the time. They’re very good at being witty in their work. A recent midterm featured a portrait of Frida Kahlo, and her eyes were very intense. There was also a coffee mug with intense eyes, and a pair of glasses, which even though they didn’t have eyes, were still definitely staring at you. You felt under the microscope and scrutinized by these ridiculous items. It was so funny.
An artwork that makes you cry?
Soooo many paintings have made me cry! The first one I really remember was ‘Nude’ by Euan Uglow at the Tate in London. It’s a painting of a seated nude pushing herself up from a chair. It was hung so you’d see it first from the end of a long gallery, and I don’t know, something about it got me. I remember practically running towards it (like the slow motion run in a rom-com), and then standing in front of it crying. Her effort and physicality are just so REAL, and yet it’s very much a painting. Years later, I got special permission to visit it in storage, and it made me cry again, even though it was hung sideways to save space.
Most underrated artist?
An artwork that you’d like to live inside for a week?
Liza Lou’s beaded kitchen. I kinda want to live in her hyper version of reality for a while. Not forever, but for a bit.
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Liza Lou, “Kitchen” (1991-1996) (detail), glass beads, wood, wire, plaster, and artist’s used appliances, 96 x 132 x 168 inches image source |
An artist whose work you can’t stop thinking about?
In highschool I developed an intense crush on a painting of David with Goliath’s head after seeing it IRL. Like, I would have passed him notes in class, and I daydreamed about him for YEARS. This was pre-internet, as I am old, so he mostly lived in my head. Recently, I realized I COULD look him up, so I did, and I was totally underwhelmed, like ‘what was I THINKING?’, much like running into an old (and disappointing) boyfriend. I’m not going to tell you which painting, because I don’t want you to judge me.
An artwork that feels like a warm hug?
Interiors by Bonnard. But not the bathrooms, those are sad.
What’s your favorite characteristic in an artwork?
I like it when the colors, or some other feature, transport you to a different place, like a specific time of day, or type of weather. I like it when you feel like you can smell the air there. I’m especially impressed if an artist is able to do this within the confines of a rectangle, vs an installation or other 3D format, because it seems harder to make a 2D space that swallows you up.
Erotic artwork? (Ed. note: this is a multiple choice question)
Other: Meh - not for me.
What’s an artwork that doesn’t look like art?
One time I was on an escalator, and I heard this delightful chiming noise. It wasn’t a melody, but it was musical. When I got to the bottom, I saw a handful of those fruit-shaped candies (are they runts?). They’d ride down the escalator, hit that thingie on the bottom, then bounce up a few feet and repeat the ride, ping-ponging all the way. Because they were all different shapes, they made different tones when they hit. It kept going and going and going. I thought ‘how marvelous! I wonder if it’s Art?’ I’m still not sure. Was it intentional? Does it matter? Can it still be Art if it’s unintentional? I choose to believe that it is.
What’s an artwork that you suspect that you shouldn’t like, but you do (guilty pleasure)?
Thomas Kincaid. JUST KIDDING. Though I do have more respect for him (or the arbiters of his estate) after they pushed back on his imagery being used for MAGA ads.
Ummm.... I think I’m not supposed to like ‘For the Love of God’ (the diamond skull) by Damien Hirst because it’s crass. And controversial, because he cast a real human skull. But you know what? That many diamonds is cool. They’re so sparkly.
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What’s an artwork that you secretly hate?
Fragonard. Blegh.
Most insane art piece?
Heard*NY by Nick Cave. I wish I’d seen it! Oh, that reminds me. Puppets ALWAYS make me cry. Last summer I ugly-cried in the 20 minute stage performance of ‘How to Train your Dragon’ at Universal Studios because the dragon puppets were so moving. Dragons! In the real world! Gah! Sob!
Fav monograph or art book?
I’m currently reading ‘How Painting Happens (and why it matters)’ by Martin Gayford. A student recommended it, and it’s SO GOOD.
Fav museum or gallery in your current location?
The National Gallery. I’m such a huge fan.
Last exhibition you saw irl?
Women Artists of the Dutch Golden Age at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. I cried there, too - several times. They had TWO self portraits by Judith Leyster - the one everyone knows, and a recently discovered NEW one where she’s middle aged. Uggghhhh so good.
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Judith Leyster, Self Portrait, ca.1630, image source |
I wanted to see the Amy Sherald exhibition at the BMA, but it sold out and I missed my chance! I will have to chase it to Atlanta! (Ed. note: Happy ending because I know for a fact she made it to the High Museum in Atlanta)
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Amy Sherald, Planes, Rockets, and the Spaces in Between, 2018, oil on canvas, 100 x 67 in., image source |
An artwork that packs a spiritual punch?
ummmmmm. Is mentioning a cathedral too on-the-nose? The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, designed by Antoni Gaudi. I’ve been twice, and both times I’ve thought, I’d go to church every week if I could just sit in this space regularly. I don’t practice any sort of religion, but I feel at my most expansive when out in nature. The Sagrada Familia’s pillars are giant tree trunks, and the windows evoke light streaming through jewel toned leaves. It perfectly captures the grandeur of nature, filtered through the genius of one person’s vision, actualized by the thousands of artists who have worked on it for the past 140+ years. ooo, I’m getting chills just thinking about it.
An artwork that you’d like to see before you die?
the Slav Epic, a cycle of 20 ENORMOUS paintings by Alphonse Mucha, chronicling the history of the Slavic people. They’re so big and fragile, they don’t travel much. I’ll have to go to Prague to Czech(ia) it out.
What art material do you love to nerd out on?
Oil Paint!
What was the last thing that you listened to in the studio?
What’s a book that changed your life?
Art Book: Secret Knowledge, by David Hockney.
Non Art Book - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
What song, book, podcast or film do you think everyone should know about?
Wellll, discovering KEXP changed my life.
Also ‘The Run-through’ Figure Skating podcast is my current obsession. You don’t even have to like Figure Skating to enjoy it- they’re so funny. The first episode of the ‘Ice Dance Lore’ is the funniest thing I’ve heard in a looooong time. I was incoherent while listening. It’s a long listen, but the payoff is SO worth it.
❤
Katherine Knight grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. She received a BA in Studio Art from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, and an MFA in Painting from American University in Washington, DC. She has completed additional studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Her work has been exhibited at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, VisArts in Rockville, MD, the OU Gallery on Vancouver Island Canada, Gallaudet University in Washington DC, Shrine NYC’s virtual Group Show (room 5), and the Indie Grits Film Festival, where her short film Sunday Mornings won the Southern Lens Award. International artist residencies include the OU Gallery on Vancouver Island, Canada, and the Burren College of Art in County Clare, Ireland. She is associate professor of painting at Montgomery College in Silver Spring, Maryland, and splits her time between Washington, DC and rural Appalachia.
