How would you describe your art? I’m a fiber artist, and I would say my style is considered contemporary. I would also say it’s very inspired by nature, the cosmos, and healing — very deeply rooted in healing work. What draws you to fiber arts? I’ve done a lot of different mediums, but fiber art is the one that keeps me engaged the most. I feel like I’m constantly learning with it.I didn’t start doing fiber art until I was an adult. My sister had brought home some embroidery stuff because she wanted to embroider a hat. I said “That looks fun. Let me try that.” I ended up making a patch, and I remember thinking it was so awful. But, I liked it because I was not good at it right away. I feel like there were a lot of art mediums that I just got right away, but embroidery and learning how to sew was something that I wasn’t good at. That’s why I was like, “I need to learn how to do this.”It also connects me to a lot of the women in my family who are fiber artists, and it feels like they’re working alongside me. My aunt used to be a quilter. She never did it for money, but she loved entering her work into shows. She boasted about her first place ribbons. She was very proud of her work, and knew that she was good. It was nice to watch her in her element. What inspires the images in your work? I’m very guided by storytelling. I took a folklore class in college, and it re-sparked my love of telling stories. Every piece I’ve made since I started doing fiber art is rooted in telling a story of some kind, and usually it’s also rooted in my healing. Could you walk me through one of your pieces? [I have this collection] called “The Story of Night and Day.” I feel like it’s all I can talk about because I love those pieces. This one is really rooted in healing and overcoming hyper independence, so it’s a very serious piece for me.I also make more lighthearted stuff that’s fun and silly, which is also healing in a different way. I like both sides of my work, but they definitely explore different things.You made a story book, correct? Yes, with that series “The Story of Night and Day.” It’s a 10 piece series, and I turned it into a picture book. It’s my first written work. I’m very proud of it and very attached to it. It focuses on the character Night, and her journey is my journey. It focuses on her journey and overcoming hyper independence, learning how to accept help, and learning how to let trust and love back in. And, when she does that, she meets Day. He’s just happy to help, and she just doesn’t understand why. And they end up taking care of a garden together and fall in love in the process. What was it like to marry this verbal storytelling with your fiber arts storytelling? It was really cool. I used to tell stories all the time when I was a little kid, and it was really great to get back to that. When I first made the series, it was just going to be one piece, and that piece is called “The Story of Night and Day.” It is 26 by 30 inches, which is the largest piece I had ever done at that time. It’s a portrait of me and my partner, and when I looked at the colored sketch I was just like, “Who are these people? How did they meet? What led them to one another?” That’s what made me want to create the other pieces in the story. I thought that would be enough, but then I wanted to write more about the feelings that they’re experiencing during this series. So, it just kept growing. What is it like being a full-time artist? Especially as a full time fiber artist, you just have to always be open to learning and understanding that you don’t know everything. Because every time I think I got it all together, something happens: I have to rebuild, remake, or reshape it in some way. Also, knowing it’s gonna take dedication and consistency, you have to devote yourself to it. Was the decision to become a full-time artist hard? It was a hard decision, but it was also really easy. I remember I was working non-stop and didn’t know what I was working towards, but I knew that the only consistency was that I enjoyed making. I didn’t really know what would do well and what wouldn’t, so I started following joy and that ended up working out. It worked out so well that eventually I was making the same amount of money doing art as I did at my retail job, and I thought, “I’d rather work for myself.” Did I have to take on a bunch of roles once I did that? Yes, I’m the manager and I’m the bookkeeper. And, it’s going to be like that for a little while. I think that is what keeps people from pursuing art full-time, because you do have to take on a lot of roles and you have to learn a lot of new things, but anybody’s capable of it, I really believe that. You just have to at least try. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. But if it does, it’s a really fun job Last year at the Festival of the Arts, you won the Emerging Artist Award. What was that like? I definitely cried for a good 20 minutes, and then I had to get myself together because the festival was going on. I dedicated a whole year of my life to the pieces in that show, and my partner was very supportive of me during that time. So, it just really felt like all of that work and time I put in really paid off. It still feels very surreal, but it reassured my choice to be a full time artist. Because it is a full choice. You have to be like, “Am I ready to do this?” It affirmed that that was the right decision for me, and things just started falling in place after that. That series was the first of my pieces to go viral on social media. It helped grow my following, and it’s given me consistency every month now since I started posting regularly. It’s also helped me to continue putting myself out there, and it’s working really well. I think that was the biggest thing I took away from doing that event. I have to remember that I put myself out there one time, and it ended up really good. Recently, you’ve been working on The Artist Closet, could you tell me about that? Yes, it is my passion project. I’ve been working on it since 2022, the same year that I started working on my art full time. I used to do the art walk down in Norman every month, on the second Friday, and I debuted The Artist Closet there. I found a little rickety pop-up shelf I could take with me and I just filled it with my own art supplies to start. It’s slowly grown over the last four years. Now we have a permanent space inside of Mycelium Gallery. We’re up to 10 shelves, like full size book shelves, which is crazy.We are going to do a fundraising event in July. I haven’t made the call for it yet, but we’re going to do an art show where I invite local artists to make things using materials in The Artist Closet. It’s going to help us get our nonprofit status, so four years in the making. What’s your favorite Oklahoma City art museum/place to see art? Definitely Mycelium Gallery. I love working with them. It’s a space where, as an artist, I feel very cherished, like they really want me to create. That’s their whole thing, they just want everybody to create.Also, art markets. I would say that I visit more art markets than I do actual museums. I’m sorry to the museums [laughing]. I meet some of the most interesting people at those markets. And it’s like, “Where have you been my whole life? You’ve just been making stuff in your house, and this is the first time you’re showing it? It is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!” The post Katie Graham appeared first on Oklahoma Gazette. ...read more read less