By Alyssa Riley

The three men sit relaxed at the table, a battered race car in the process of being fixed up behind them and 10 rusted shovels, a gasoline can and welding helmets at their feet. The man on the left has a cigarette nestled in his mouth. The man in the middle is caught with his mouth open, his shirt anywhere but on his torso. And the man on the right, man-spreading with a gaping hole in his jean leg, has a mullet that could win awards. They’re in a garage – in their habitat. 

Taken in 2004, this photo is titled ‘1411 Towson Avenue’ after the home’s address and was the first of many in an art series titled ‘Habitats’.

Kat Wilson, the creator of ‘Habitats’, is an experimental artist whose work is theatrical, participatory, and humanistic and oftentimes involves the collaboration of others. 

Eighteen years later, Wilson has over a hundred ‘Habitats’ under her belt. Being her most acclaimed project, one that lasted almost two decades and has received national success, ‘Habitats’ will continue as she prepares to start working on her second series.  

“I wanted to take a photo that gave you a lot of information about who the sitter was, what they were about at the time, everything,” Wilson said. “I wanted it dramatically lighted like the renaissance painters; I tried to kind of make it high art, in my young mind.”

Wilson has been an artist her entire life, she said. Around the age of 15, she started taking photographs for friends and seniors, charging $35. She would even bring along her camera to her part-time job at the city pool, photographing her co-workers during their breaks. 

Art competitions were also a way Wilson spent her time, as she would easily get in with her artwork. 

Attending art school was something Wilson wanted for her future after high school, but a few challenges got in the way as graduation drew nearer. 

“I was kind of slow to grow up in school because I was doing what I wanted and not studying. It was kind of a little late for me, like, ‘Oh, wait, you actually have to try in school?’” she said, laughing.

Despite that challenge, she ended up attending the University of Central Arkansas where she graduated in 2002 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Studio Art.

After graduating, Wilson interned at Afterimage in 2002, a visual studies workshop, completed the Canon Video Workshop in 2011 and earned her Master’s in Photography in 2016 at the University of Arkansas where she was named a Fulbright Scholar.  

During her time at the U of A, Wilson started the Photography Club, an RSO which is still in place today. Along with starting the new club, Wilson also held workshops for art students and was the director at the new Sugar Gallery in downtown Bentonville in 2011. 

Her graduate professors asked who wanted to help run Sugar Gallery, and Wilson, one of the only to volunteer, became obsessed with working and bringing in new talent from around the country. 

She brought in an acapella group from Memphis, ‘Artistic Approach’, and a couple, Mary Lee and Eli Armstrong, from Providence, Rhode Island. who performed with artwork and live music. “It all tied together so cool,” she said, recollecting. 

Shortly after graduating with her Masters, she became an assistant to a commercial photographer in Little Rock, homing in on her technical skills. 

“I only knew how to be an artist and I kind of knew how to work my camera,” she said. “Everything went digital the year I graduated, so I had to make a living; I didn’t want to be a waitress forever.” 

However, Wilson said she knew she didn’t want to be a commercial photographer forever, either. She wanted a series to show off her new-learned lighting skills.

“I wanted people to spend time with my photos, because, a lot of the time, you just glance at them. So, the best way is to put a lot of information in your photos – about who the sitter was, what they were about at the time, everything,” she said. 

Those are qualities that run consistently in all of her ‘Habitats’ pieces. 

Her work has been shown around the world, from Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville to the Louvre in Paris where she competed in the fifth annual Exposure Award Competition. 

Wilson even recently participated in FORMAT, the newest Northwest Arkansas festival that showcases music, art and technology. She exhibited her ‘#selfiethrone’, an interactive piece that combined elements of photography, sculpture and performance art. 

Festival attendees were able to snag a photo sitting on the throne and were encouraged to return at night when the entire appearance would change. 

Her newest series is called ‘UFO’, ultra-flattened objects. To her, this is simply about being a person in their yard while crazy things unfold all around. 

Since her professional career as an artist took off, Wilson has accomplished many of the goals that she set for herself, and she said it is time to write down a new list, one that calls for a bigger, more national setting.

Although she has accomplished an outstanding amount throughout her career thus far, like co-founding the non-profit gallery Bottle Rocket in Northwest Arkansas, she looks to the future for what she will do next. 

Wilson has accomplished an outstanding amount throughout her career like co-founding a non-profit gallery in Northwest Arkansas, Bottle Rocket. However, she looks forward to what she will do in the future. 

“When I think about it, I really try to make (art) approachable,” she said. “I don’t make it for other artists, that’s the best way to say it. I make art for everyone. So, I made everything I could, and it changes all the time.”