About the Artist

Pyrography is what you get when you burn a piece of wood but do it intentionally and artistically. I use a special tool—a cross between a pen and a branding iron—to burn designs on wood.

My work features the concept of memento mori, often presented alongside representations of life: flowers, trees, and other living things. Life and death go hand in hand, which is a special kind of poetry and a lesson we all eventually learn—why not celebrate it?

My work isn’t for everyone, which makes sense cause, well, all art is subjective. Believe it or not, there’s a freaky little community of us out there. Some of us never got over our goth phase. Some of us are true crime obsessives and have cultivated an aesthetic based around a love of mystery and the macabre. Some of us feel haunted and need to express that in a healthy way.

Every artist is self-taught if you think about it. I am also mother-taught by my painter mom, and I have an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Yep—I am very white. I have Irish, Scottish, and Welsh ancestry and am inspired in different ways by each of these cultures.

That it ends. My work embraces this, but so do my life choices. I (am privileged to be able to) take the risk of creating art full-time because I don’t want to spend my finite life in a stable but bland gig that doesn’t give me a sense of purpose of joy.

At this time, most of my artwork available for purchase can be found in my Etsy shop. I hope to transition fully from Etsy to this site in the near future, but for now, please click the button below to view my Etsy shop. You can also follow @katyjosstudio on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook to see my latest work, insights into my creative process, and behind the scenes glimpses of my studio.