Meet Ginger Knowlton | Mother and Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ginger Knowlton and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ginger, what do you think makes you most happy? Why?
There are so many things that make me happy, such a walking in the (rare, for Colorado) rain with an exuberant Border collie, forests, oceans, skiing – but my greatest sources of happiness come from human relationships and the joy of raising children, nurturing friendships, and the state of timelessness that arises while painting. It seems that timelessness, or time outside of the invention of the clock, underpin all of these experiences.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Though I have earned a doctorate in literature and creative writing, and I’ve taught and truly enjoyed and been inspired by my writing students at the University of Colorado and also Massey University in New Zealand, my visual art practices run earlier and deeper than any of my other creative impulses. I’m so grateful for a few small, solo exhibits of my paintings (and these are most often oil paintings inspired by land and water and a deep connection to and admiration for the wildness of these places), but one show in particular made me very happy, because I so loved working with two other painters, Alissa Davies and Pam Sica, for a group show, “Holding Center,” of the quiet, sustaining artwork that we each produced in the midst of the isolation of the pandemic. This show seemed a bit like a fern frond, or some other plant beginning to unfurl after a long winter – the opening was the first time people seemed to feel safe emerging into community again. On a more personal note, I am thrilled and honored to have paintings in private collections across the United States (and a couple overseas). I’ve learned that having a designated studio space is essential for me, and my studio at the Eldorado Springs Art Center has been a sanctuary for many years (with a long break in the middle to tend to very young children). I’ve learned, too, that my process necessarily involves working on multiple paintings at once, that there is a correspondence between them, and painting is a very physical activity for me, as I move between them, always on foot, always in motion. Painting, for me, is a vital path to the truth of who I really am, and it’s an act of love, a reflection of a wish for peace and beauty and a clear tending to and reverence for the world around us, the essential connection between inner and outer landscapes. I love so many things that art critic Jerry Saltz has written, but this one seems especially meaningful, that “in some ways, when all is said and done, there is no artist. Only the work.”

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We would start in Boulder, and walk through the towering pines at Chautauqua, and also through the Eldorado Canyon State Park – there is a bend in a particular path in Eldorado that reveals a gorgeous sheer wall of rock, the river racing far below, and every time that I turn this corner, I’m left in a state of awe – it’s a transcendent experience. I love taking guests to the Dushanbe Teahouse, too – what a delight to eat absolutely delicious food *inside* a stunning work of art. My three children also love Dragonfly Noodle in downtown Boulder above all other restaurants – we have developed a pattern of celebrating at Dragonfly whenever one of my paintings moves to a new home, a new collection, and it is delicious, nourishing ramen (also selected by Westword as the best ramen in the area). If the timing is right, I would take friends to Boulder’s Open Studios or any number of amazing galleries in the Denver/Boulder area. I would take them to the CU Art Museum, which is a beautiful space with an extraordinary collection (I serve on the Community Council for this museum) – the current “Onward and Upward: Shark’s Ink” show is gorgeous, and it runs through July. Finally, again if the timing is right, we would spend some time on skis, likely in Winter Park, as there’s nothing like the floating weightlessness, the fresh air, the sweeping vistas and expanses of snow. And if it’s summer, the mountain wildflowers are stunning, the unexpected bursts of color, the high, clear air.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Goodness, there are so many people and places that I have loved, and who have loved and nurtured me – I love what Thich Nhat Hanh once said about “interbeing,” the state of connectedness and interdependence that we all share . My parents and children and numerous friends and students have been wonderfully kind and supportive. This morning, I am thinking of my grandmother, Eloise, in particular – she became my grandmother through marriage and had no biological children, but she had a way of seeing and understanding that nurtures me to this day. Eloise was a perfect model of a kind, attentive, strong, independent woman, and I learned years after she died that she had mentored and guided many women at Oberlin College and earned a degree from Columbia in an era when such a degree remained a rare achievement for a woman. She encouraged and protected my creativity and sense of free-spiritedness and kept some of my very early, awkward art projects framed in her home.

Website: gingerknowlton.com

Instagram: @ginger.knowlton

Image Credits
All images are of paintings by Ginger Knowlton, photographed by Ginger Knowlton. Images of any paintings in private collections are included with permission of the collection owner.