Jackie Knight - April 2024

Artist Statement

My name is Jackie Knight, I am 24, and I am from Wisconsin. I graduated from Lawrence University in 2022 with a major in biology and a minor in studio art, and I currently am one of the baristas at Mother Fool’s. I have been drawing for about as long as I have been around. For most of my life I have kept all of my art in sketchbooks, keeping it to myself or sharing it with friends and family. After doing sculpture work in college, I wanted to be able to share my art work, so I have been trying my hand at painting. I started using paint markers and trying to incorporate more colors, and I have been very happy with what I have been making.

I draw a wide variety of creatures, monsters and ghouls. Some of my recurring themes are skulls, eyes, and teeth. Lately I have been experimenting with adding texture to the figures in my paintings. I like to start projects without a plan and see where my marker takes me. I view the line work process as bringing a creature into existence, and every mistake or added line is part of its journey onto the canvas. I prefer to start and finish a painting all in one sitting if I have the time, although that does not always happen. Ideally, each piece will be creepy, but fun and interesting to look at once it is finished.

I attribute a lot of my influence to always being interested in the stranger and more macabre parts of life. I was and still am very interested in a variety of creepy crawlies, deep sea creatures, and skeletal structures. My artwork has been attributed to Hieronymus Bosch, Adventure Time, and Kieth Haring.