Katie Holten

Artist in Residence, Fall 2019

New York-based visual artist Katie Holten grew up in Ireland. Interested in exploring  the connection between nature and language, she has developed an alphabet using drawings of different tree species, which she used to write her book, About Trees, in 2015.   

“For me, the books are about creating a sense of community, and how everything is related to everything,” Katie said. “Alphabets are ways to think about language relationships to other species on the planet.” 

During her residency at Oak Spring, Katie worked on several upcoming projects, including a piece for Emergence Magazine that she is creating with poet Forrest Gander. For the magazine, she is working to develop an alphabet resembling dissolving seeds and spores that will be turned into a font, influenced by the wildfires spreading through California. She also worked on several other tree alphabet books, including a children’s book and a book of Irish trees. 

Learn more about Katie’s website (https://www.katieholten.com/). To read a blogpost about OSGF’s fall 2019 Artists in Residence, click here.