We recently connected with Katie Moore Howson and have shared our conversation below.

Katie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I’m so glad I started my art career when I did. I returned to painting in 2020 while pregnant during the pandemic. I was so scared of what the future held, both for my daughter and the world we all share. Painting became a source of safety and solitude, just as it did during tumultuous times as a kid. There are certainly moments I wish I’d started sooner, gone to art school, and had a different sort of creative pedigree. Maybe it would change the trajectory of my career, maybe not. But the intentions surrounding my painting would suffer. By starting when I did, my practice became about processing emotion, connecting with others, and about healing. Those intentions have allowed me a degree of freedom from expectation that I don’t know I’d have if I started at any other time.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My creative career really started with my first job in New York – a production assistant at MTV On-Air Promos. I was surrounded by writers, directors, editors, graphic designers, photographers, sound engineers, you name it. Even as I eventually worked my way up to Writer-Producer, it was the contagious creative energy that kept me engaged. When I look at my artwork now, I can still see threads inspired by that time. The focus on layers, graphic compositions, and elements of storytelling were all informed by that stage in life. I made a career as a writer between MTV and now, and the writer’s search for meaning is very much at the core of my work. I’m fascinated by the relationships between emotion and meaning, and language and patterning. In my work I utilize a system of symbols and markings designed to communicate the power of energetic exchanges. I’m interested in the universal human experiences we all have throughout life, but that impact each of us in dramatically different ways. When we explore the emotions underneath meanings, and challenge familiar patterns, a world of connection beyond language begins to open up.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Creativity and emotional awareness are distinctly intertwined, in my opinion. If we were to instill in children from a young age that their emotions are meaningful, not fearful, I think we would find a much more expansive next generation of artists. So much of growing up in our society is an act of suppression. Kids are asked to sit still, be quiet, and tow the line. But creativity does not operate that way! It’s always in motion, it’s loud, and it does not care much for authority. Freedom of self-expression is one of the greatest gifts our society could possibly give current and future artists.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My daughter drives me in everything I do. It’s deeply important to me that I show her and every other little girl in my life that a woman can make a career doing what she loves. And perhaps more than anything, that she gets to decide exactly what that looks like.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://katiehowsoncreative.com
• Instagram: @katiehowsoncreative
• Other: Commission inquiries: katie@katiehowsoncreative.com

Image Credits

Emlyn Henley