Conversations with Katy Kidd

Today we’d like to introduce you to Katy Kidd.

Hi Katy, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born in Denver in 1972. My earliest memory of the pull of wanting to be an artist was in 1st grade. The education model back then was to have tables around the room, each with their own activity, reading, writing, math, art, science, etc. My recall is that 2 or 3 of us were allowed 30 minutes at each table and then had to switch. I remember being upset that I couldn’t stay at the art table. It sounds so simple, but I had a fire in me then, for creativity, that I can still feel today. All throughout high school I had the same fervor for art but I added music into the mix as well. After school I would head to LoDo to The Art Students League of Denver. There were only an handful of classes back then in the smaller original building. Over the years I have played piano and taught myself sloppy guitar and ukulele. I have been in several bands over the years as a singer, performing quite a bit which is wild because I have stage fright. I am currently working on a collaboration with my son (he’s 32) and an incredible electronic musician. When we see each other a few times a year we write and record together. It’s a blast and it scratches an itch I never really knew I had. After college I moves to Santa Fe, New Mexico. I lived there for 30 years, always working for artists and moonlighting my art in the evening and weekends. I didn’t become a full time artist until December of 2023. Becoming a full time artist was a complete pivot in my life. I had never not worked for other people. I was terrified in a very real way. The fear was and still is “What if I don’t make it?” There is a small part of me that wrestles with Imposter Syndrome. I have philosophical debates in my head at least once a month where I take a quick inventory of my work, my time, income and expenses always come to the same decision. I agree that I am not making a living on my art, but I would rather try and utterly fail than not try and have that regret on my deathbed. I also have to look at it in percentages. Some years I make more work than others. Some years I make more money. It’s always in some sort of flux. So this idea of success is a moving target and it heavily depends on how I am defining “success” in that moment. Is it financial? Is it growth as an artist? Is it in the product?

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My 52 years has not been smooth, and I believe that if you live long enough you will experience ups and downs. I have had years, on and off, where I sold a good amount of work. I had solo shows and felt like I was gaining traction in the art world. The past year and a half has been incredibly quiet. This makes me nervous and then I remind myself that if no one is watching I can be as loose and experimental as I want. It’s the time to try different approaches to art making and what a gift that I CAN have this time. I believe it makes me a stronger artist than before. I try to only be in competition with my former self, actively working at the challenge of not comparing myself to others, which isn’t always easy.

I was pregnant with my son at 20. Being a mom, employe, wife, etc left little time for making art. I found ways to make projects that took less time so I could feel like I was completing ideas. At one point I worked in one of the closets in our house. I worked small during those times. All of it was fruitful.

My most recent struggle was leaving my marriage of 20 years and moving to Denver in 2021. I swore up and down that I would never move back here and I have been in the same apartment in five points, for 3 years. Getting out of Santa Fe was great for my growth as an artist. I feel like I have more fulfillment as an artist now, than in the past. At this point in my life there are no brakes, and why not?.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I have mostly been a painter. Until recently I started working with printmaking. In fact in the last year I boxed my oil paints up and put them to the side so I could exclusively work in printmaking. I am mostly working with mono prints, linocuts and a technique called paper lithograph which is quite technical and tricky. I learned screen printing as well as woodblock printing in Oaxaca, Mexico, which has some undeniably next level printmakers worth checking out.

My subject matter is my own global vernacular of images. Some I have collected while being lucky enough to travel to other countries. Others I hunt for elsewhere. My childhood has informed a lot of the images as well. The 1970’s were a dreamy time in my young life. The 80’s were edgy and wild. I greedily absorbed both of these eras with everything I had, music always being the leader pulling me down these wacky subculture lines. Anything unusual fascinated me. It still does. Ordinary objects hold some power for me as do religious objects, saints, buddhas, Jesus and Mary, along with a lot of the Hindu gods. Cars are really fun and interesting to me as a symbol of wealth. In America, it is standard to get a drivers license and perhaps a car at 16, but most nations do not follow this rite of passage. We are privileged, which is also a fascination. I cannot make sense of why some of us are born into this and others are not. Which feeds my thoughts about the existence or non existence of God. So all of this and more gets mashed up into paintings and prints.

As an artist I am trying to make sense of the world through images. I am trying to find similarities around the planet. We worship so many ordinary things in the USA that aren’t religious. Mc Donalds, Walmart, and now Amazon are the standard. We buy things we don’t need. To me it seems insane. Our world has become insanely commercialized. Every platform is trying to hustle a person to buy something, taking advantage of our short attention spans and of this I am as guilty as anyone else.

I am most proud of having tenacity and grit in business and in life. It’s a muscle that I have learned to strengthen, In my 20’s and 30’s I gave up on things easily and felt sorry for myself, using alcohol and drugs to numb it all. This became a problem by the time I hit 40. In all I suppose that I put a little more importance on how I have lived rather than what I have created. It works for me.

What matters most to you? Why?
Integrity is the most important thing to me. If I am living in a way that supports this I tend to be much happier. I have been all over the spectrum in my 52 years. I have been rowdy, indignant, living on the streets or on a farm in the woods, pious and entitled, with money and without…I have just been all over the place. These are the best years so far. I am the most happy with myself and my Integrity, even if no one is watching, is very important to me.

Pricing:

• $500-$5000

Contact Info:

• Website: www.katykidd.org
• Instagram: katykidd2