Kelly Knight is a Providence-based mixed-media artist. She’s spending time in Wellfleet this winter creating abstract images that record her experience of the landscape. Walking through and observing places is often a starting point for her creative projects. Some of her work is based on “psychogeographic” research on the streets and pathways her ancestors traversed in Cambridge and Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Here, she says, the connection to place feels “more personal than ancestral.” —Abraham Storer
Q: What is it like to make art here in winter?
The experience of being able to just go and walk in the woods and along the shore is so peaceful and a contrast to being in the city, which is so draining and jarring. When I go into the studio and make art or images, there’s more of a flow. It’s unadulterated in a certain way by the intrusion of the city experience and other people’s noise and energy.
On childhood visits to Wellfleet, I felt the magical quality of this place. Coming back to Wellfleet now is like returning to a younger version of myself.
Q: Is walking part of your process?
We walk a lot of trails in the woods that go down to the water. We walk as much as we can. Then I come back, and I do these drawings based on the walk. They’re very simple and quick drawings that I can do in the space that I have now and with the materials that I have here. I have a small studio setup, sort of like a traveling studio. It forces me to think differently about what I’m doing.
Q: How is that reflected in Pond Poem?
There is some direct translation of what I’m seeing when I’m out walking: the water, the birds, the decaying trees, and mushrooms. It’s also a consolidation of walks by the kettle ponds and the harborside. I think it’s pulling together those two sides.
But it’s also about translating a less tangible aspect of the place. It’s a response to the connection I’m feeling. I did this in November or December when it was still sunny and mild. My whole body was relaxing into the space.
