I’ve been painting on things all my life. Took me this long to land on canvas. From clothing to sneakers, walls to furniture and on to extravagant stage attire, nothing was off limits for my paintbrush.

I studied art and design, graduating with a BFA from the University of Mississippi. After 7 years of graphic art and custom clothing design, I followed my soon-to-be husband, Doobie Brothers’ drummer Keith Knudsen, to sunny California. My own hand-painted tuxedo jacket turned heads backstage at a concert and a new business was born. Clients would see one jacket then order their own with instructions to “make mine wilder than the last.” Talk about artistic freedom! I hand-painted apparel for music legends Toto, Tom Petty, the Doobies, REO Speedwagon, Willie Nelson, Dwight Yokum and Emmylou Harris to name a few.  Soon after, sports giant Reebok hired me to create one-of-a-kind shoes for celebrity clients, from Stephen Spielberg to Whoopie Goldberg and Ronald Reagan to Elton John.  Eventually Reebok released 5 sneakers with my designs printed right on to the leather.  The original shoes are currently in a New York City gallery along with a feature shot in the book “COLLAB: Sneakers x Culture.”

My artwork has been woven into socks and splashed across walls in a collaboration with 3M’s interactive room decoration project for kids.  Next came my own clothing line, Katy Small, cutting-edge super feminine fashion for girls. From there, I jumped on board with EVITA PERONI, a high end international fashion accessory line, becoming their Chief Designer and Creative Director.  This meant never unpacking my suitcase for over 20 years as I travelled between the US, Asia and Europe, designing 6 collections per year while managing creative teams in Hong Kong.

I recently hung up my international designer hat, picked up a paintbrush, dug my fingers into clay and came back to my first passion, art, heeding modern artist Robert Rauschenberg’s advice to trust the journey. “I don’t know where I’m going but I’ll get there on time.”