Meet Jude King

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jude King.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. When I was little, my family wasn’t the best off, but my mom would save whatever paper she could find for me to draw on. My best memories from the time were the two of us drawing on the backs of coupons.

When it was time for me to go to college, I thought I wanted to go into structural engineering. I went through two and a half years of engineering classes, sketchbook in my bag the whole time before I realized just this last fall that engineering wasn’t really my thing. Since then, I’ve been devoting myself to my art and trying to figure out what I want to do with it.

I still have a lot of my story ahead of me. I start art classes in the spring, and there is so much I’m looking forward to learning. It’s exciting to think about where my work is going to go from here!

Please tell us about your art.
I’m at a point in my art right now where I’m trying everything I can get my hands on. I do most of my work digitally or in watercolor, but I’m also pretty fond of ink.

I take a lot of inspiration from the desert and the people around me. I try to focus on identity and self in my serious pieces. I want there to be a part of myself and of the viewer in every piece. Moving forward, I definitely want to add more symbolism and thought into my work.

Choosing a creative or artistic path comes with many financial challenges. Any advice for those struggling to focus on their artwork due to financial concerns?
Every little bit of practice helps. If you can put in 10 minutes a day when you get off work, you’re off to a great start! It could also be helpful, depending on how you work and how you organize yourself, to pick a medium that works well being worked on in small chunks of time over several days, like digital.

The truth is that art isn’t a sustainable career for a lot of people, and that’s okay. Art has value even if the person making it isn’t a full-time artist. If all you manage to do is express yourself or get your day’s frustrations out onto a paper, that’s still great.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
I post my art on Instagram (@a_kingcat) and Twitter (@SmallCatStudio) mainly. I also have a Ko-fi page if anyone wants to contribute a few dollars to my art. I upload some things to RedBubble under the username SmallCatStudio that I think would make good products, so if there’s anything you’re interested in buying, check there!

Contact Info:

• Email: smallcatstudio@gmail.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/a_kingcat
• Twitter: twitter.com/SmallCatStudio
• Other: ko-fi.com/SmallCatStudio, redbubble.com/people/SmallCatStudio

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