Hi! I’m Katie Compton, and I own this joint. I spent my childhood exploring the forest and rivers in a deep, green wood; learning the tools and culture of my ancestors – from tracking to flint knapping to stewarding the land as a valuable and respected resources fighting off villains and rogues and drawing my fellow soldiers between the waves of vermin; and traveling to the far reaches of the Amazonian jungle with National Geographic photographers, all without leaving the basement and its boxes of old magazines, my books that I could take anywhere, my yard and its small wood and garden, and the dirty yellow creek that led me through cat-briers, over handmade bridges, and through years of observing, imagining, and growing into the person I am now.
My horizons are bigger now, more distant. I’ve a marsh instead of a creek. I write my own stories. I’ve gathered wild plants for food and scavenged animals to look beneath their skins and found worlds within. The thrill and lust for exploration has only seeped deeper into my being, though I’ve lost some of the thrill for being a NatGeo photographer (an exceptionally written piece on the leeches, wounds, and several near-death experiences of one photographer on assignment did me in). I illustrate what I see and imagine in order to communicate story, life, truth, and the exceptional beauty that can still be found in the world.
Science – the dogged search for truth within creation – is my heart. Art – the expression of that truth through ink, paint, and word – is my hand and vessel. God – the author of Truth and lover of my soul – is my reason for life and the passion that drives me to create and explore. I can’t have one without the other, and so you find me now in the pursuit of both.
I’m a graduate from Pensacola Christian College, with a bachelors in visual arts, studio art concentration and (naturally) a biology minor. I’ve completed an art internship at the Creation Museum, had my work published in Answers magazine, and I’ve lived abroad. There is more ahead, and I thank you for taking interest in my work and passions and I hope you stick around and check in often!
April 2018