Interview: A conversation with Illustrator Katie King

Collaboration and community are the foundations when it comes to the concept of Salt Circle.  I have known Katie King for a few years now and have always been a massive fan of her work.  So naturally, Katie was the first person I thought of when it came to the designs and illustrations behind Salt Circle.  “These are just doodles” She said of a rough draft she was sending over but, I instantly feel in love with the design.  It was perfect! elegant in its simplicity, very much how I feel about flowers. 

Katie’s designs and illustrations push boundaries, while simultaneously evoking a sense of wonder and beauty that lingers long after the initial visual impact.  I caught up with Katie for a little Q&A below.

 

Hello Katie! I’m always fascinated by your travels. Where in the world are you right now? and how is the experience so far?

Hi Natalia! So I am currently in Japan. I am lucky because my brother emigrated here around 15 years ago and I have a very beautiful sister-in-law and niece, who, as a family, have been our translators and shown us a more traditional experience of Japan that aren’t obvious to us tourists. I have loved this trip so much, we have been to Tokyo, Karuizawa, Atami, Kyoto and now in the Setouchi area for the art islands. The food is incredible and nature is the main event. Also zen gardens are such a central part of Japanese spiritual culture, it’s an incredible thing to be in a place with so much access to this kind of beauty. My brother said if I lived here I would spend all my money and he’s completely right because I have spent all my money. I love the pirikura photo booths which are both problematic and great. I’ve seem sex museums side by side with children’s spaces, waterfalls, many interesting toilets, maiko (trainee geisha wearing the style we are more aquainted to in the west), covered myself in plasters to go to a traditional onsen, and even seen the inside of Japanese hospitals which is another story.

 

Japan! Amazing.  That is a bucket list place for me.  I have always loved the silk paintings from Japan.  Are you drawing a lot of inspiration from the culture and scenery for your illustrations?

I have been drawing. However the main takeaway has actually been in thinking about service and ritual, which the Japanese are so good at, and I’m coming back to the UK with a new idea for a light sculpture piece for an installation as part of Hackney Art Week in June.  My other creative highlights, aside from the food, have been the textiles, which is everywhere; hanging in trees in woodland walkways, obviously in the front of doors, it hangs in interesting ways as decor, it’s in the kimono and all the various Ikat and dying and weaving styles. I visited the showroom and gallery space of a textile design house called Hosoo in Kyoto which had a dark room filled with these huge woven canvases and they’re totally cosmic and special and I genuinely felt very emotional being with them.
Another favourite was the concept of ‘Tomason’ highlighted in a retrospective of the Japanese artist Akasegawa Genpai at Kyoto Art Center which essentially describes objects within the urban space which are functionally useless but aesthetically valuable, like a staircase to a door which has been bricked over, becomes a ‘pure staircase’.
I actually could write much more on my creative highlights especially as I’ve only just arrived to the setouchi area! This trip was also the first time I learned about the Japanese concept of ‘ma’ which is about space or pauses between objects, sounds and so on. This whole trip essentially has made me think more about what is happening on the other side and makes me want to make more attention to detail!

 

For anyone that is coming across you for the first time, what was your journey in to illustration?

My journey has mostly come through textiles, which I prioritised the study of up until my art foundation and then came back to in my early twenties when I had an underwear brand called Pantsu & Pantsu with my best pal Eliza and I would draw pin up girls for the stickers. As an animator, Illustratrion has at times, been a means to an end, i.e. movement. However since leaving the RCA and especially since listening to an incredible lecture on drawing by Amy Silman (on Youtube) I’ve come to understand that drawing is a whole cosmos in itself. It’s so great to draw for drawing’s sake, for no other purpose and for no one else.

 

As an illustrator who also embraces spirituality, how does your spiritual practice or perspective influence your creative process and the illustrations you create? Do you find certain themes, techniques, or approaches emerge naturally from this connection?

Last summer I took a course in automatic writing which is a form of mediumship (chanelling messages from people who have passed over or beings from the spirit world generally - in all it’s many forms). This approach to mark making has informed my drawing approach ever since. I have also just completed a foundation in mediumship training. I am in the process of finding for myself a drawing practice where I am tuning into the psychic and mediumistic. I’ve given readings for people in the last few months which use drawing as a way to receive message and it’s very interesting to look down at the page at the end of the reading and see this very built up image. These are drawings which look not too disimilar to the illusratrions that I made for Salt Circle! I realise the most important thing (for me) when drawing, is to sit down, empty the head, breath into it, let my hand move and mark make without my rational brain taking over.

 

Do you incorporate any spiritual practices and rituals when you are travelling away from home?

I have a piece of septeria, a stone sometimes called the ‘dragon stone’, which I received on an energy work training course last year which feels very special to me and which I always take in my bag when I travel. It helps me to tune in if I want to do a reading when I’m away, it makes me feel grounded, and I trust this stone to look after my bags! When I travel I practice yoga, usually I am travelling to spend a lot of time in nature, I draw and I meditate. I also like to let random objects or things come across my path on my travels which are my ‘luckies’ that I
take back to the UK. On this trip I received a lighter from a great human and I also happend to go past the most perfect garage sale of a person selling off cuts of Japanese textiles, which I count as a lucky.

 

Please check out Katie’s work that we have featured under our ‘Buds” page, as well as some limited edition ‘Salt Circle’ designs below.  Prices available upon request.