Nick McKnight is this December/January Storefront Window Gallery Artist. Nick is an artist and sign maker in Providence. Utilizing neon in his work, McKnight creates text-based sculptures using poetry and often common phrases. He fabricates and assembles the glass in his Olneyville studio, Night Light Neon.
Below is a conversation between Storefront Window Artist Nick McKnight and fellow Artist/sign painter Shawn Gilheeney
Shawn Gilheeney: Being a fine artist, living a commercial artist's existence, does battling against the overwhelming weight of a capitalist society also affect your ability to find anything to watch on Netflix with all of those choices ? (No really - I really want to know about both - the challenges of being both a fine and commercial artist AND how you find what to watch)
Nick McKnight: I can’t sit still and watch anything, what with all the crushing expectations to produce, excel, create content, consume, expel. The Penguin was good.
I find it difficult in today’s world to manage an art making practice with the responsibilities, but I’ve always made work while working full-time elsewhere. While doing both, it’s double the marketing, double the fabrication, and half the time available to achieve any form of normalcy or acceptance, but it’s also double the reward. I get to spend as much time as I want with my 2 year old son and watch him grow.
If you’ve heard the phrase “if you have time to lean, you have time to clean”. If I have any down time in between jobs or repairs, meetings, etc, I work on ongoing artworks.
SG: What would be your dream job be, where you didn’t have to deal with money or customers ? Example : mine would be cutting grass on the side of the highway NMK: I had to think about it for a while. For one, if money or customers weren’t necessary I’d still love to make neon and experiment more. But outside of that I would want to be a roadie. Not in the band, but just be a part of the experience. SG: Script or block alphabets ,,,, what’s your favorite to bend ? NMK: It depends on the font. Mostly bold sans serif fonts because it challenges me to be as perfect as possible. Every ‘e’ and every ‘a’ has to be as precise as the last. Masochism of letter making. SG: Working so much with text, and having only 26 letters in the English alphabet, do you ever get bored or curious enough to learn other languages/alphabets? ( For example, the Khmer/Cambodian alphabet has 74 letters ) NMK: I hadn’t thought of that before. Although every time I have to make a chinese character I do have to quadruple check that I don’t make it backwards. I’d love to learn. The older I get, the harder it is to retain any new information. But with fonts and text, at least when it comes to my artwork, I really try to feel out what works with each piece, phrase, poem. It isn’t just chosen at random. Font is often decided in the same manner as colors. SG: Working around hot glass and burners ,,,,2nd and 3rd degree burns are a constant possibility, have you any advice for what to do if one gets a bad burn ?
NMK: It’s more of an inevitability. Always happens. I recently got a burn on my hip of all places. And I’ve gotten hot glass in my eye before. Depending on the severity, some aloe every few hours and clean it, cover it. SG: Assuming you are made of stardust like David Bowie and the rest of us,,, Does the neon gas that surrounds baby stars also surround your child ? NMK: YES! All of the gases used in neon production are noble gases, which are heavier than normal, so they are lower to the ground, but always surrounding my child. He is also full of gas. SG: Bud heavy or bud light ? NMK: Whiskey neat. Or bud light for the neon pun. SG: The fine artist thrives on cheap space and connections to deep pocketed investors, but the commercial artist requires new businesses and money to be moving into the area to thrive. With your current installation at the Dirt Palace, how do you think the circle should be squared ? : please note Da VInci died before he figured out how to mathematically square the circle answers should be limited to 2-3 years of thought NMK: As a commercial practice, signage can be pretty recession proof. There will always be new businesses or rebranding being done. Vintage means of production are more niche these days but still sought out. The artist always needs their collectors and people rooting them on to keep going (please share my stuff!). In both cases connections are important. People lifting each other up in their communities are important to get in front of the eyes of those who have means to support financially I suppose. I’ll think about it more until 2028.
SG: I’m currently paying way to much for a one bedroom apartment I rent
And the “ Creative Capital “ branding for Providence seems to be at odds with its housing market and availability for artist space.
Would you want to start a sign company with me called “Capital Creative” where we never use lowercase and would that be an adequate protest against bad typography and unfair access to affordable housing and creative space in this fair city ?
NMK: Absolutely. We’re all paying too much for way less these days. We should all pay close attention and support what the newly formed Atlantic Mills commercial tenant union is doing too. It would be great to have a meeting of the minds with artists in the area to discuss options similarly for holding space, talk about artist needs, rents, housing, etc.
SG: That old neon installation on the old civic center .. the dunk or whatever it's called now ….honest opinion ?
NMK: I’ve been back and forth on this one. The entire thing was recently converted to LED. So I don’t like that, but that’s alright. The work itself, It’s not my usual taste but it doesn’t have to be.
SG: Is the Bird the word …? .. and are you interested in avariay forms in neon,,,, if so whose feathers are we talking,, ex: eagle ,, parrot , or Larry ?
NMK: Ornithology is for the birds. Neon is for the people.
SG: Say you had the money and time to create your dream neon installation >> what , where and why?
NMK: I have a catalogue of ideas that are filed away in a dewey decimal system a mile long, my friend.
One piece that comes to mind is a really long poem, about 10 lines, that I wrote about dealing with
anxiety. A few others I want to do is to make fake business signs. Like “Weird Wally’s Wacky Wieners” or
“Pat’s Pickle House”
SG: Poetic license seems to play a large part in your fine art work ,,, how do you work out these ideas? bathroom graffiti , poetry books ,other,? ,, and do they keep you up at night ?
NMK: I’ve always liked writing and reading poetry. I’m a fan of anything Anne Sexton did, or many
authors of the publishing company Write Bloody. I’ve always found my work to not necessarily exist, or fit
into any normal ‘space’, especially in New England (ie lighthouses and beach paintings). My writing isn’t
in a book and my art isn’t exactly pictorial, although I have had work published. It always needed to be
text as image, for the viewer to read and take away their own message from their own life experience.
SG: As in most people engaging in antiquated trades, holding on to the past seems to play a major role in your work > what do you long for ? or want your work to connect to ?
NMK: I long for happiness. I search for meaning. I want to connect to myself and the world around me. In my work I’m really trying to understand myself and what it means to be alive, to feel, to grieve, to laugh, to exist. I guess that’s the essence of my work.
SG: Your Installation sign reads “ (Music Fades)”. As we get older the Music Fades for other reasons than venues closing ..probably from too many noise shows without earplugs … What are some of your Favorite music shows you've been to in Providence // venues….. or special memories you don't want to fade ?
NMK: Wow. I’m lucky to have experienced some great shows in the past. In Providence, of course is The Living Room. I remember sticky floors, the green room, the back alley. Seeing hardcore or punk shows from bands I still try to find on spotify to no avail. One great show I saw was White Rabbits at Club Hell. One time Static-x was to play Lupos and while my dad was working downtown, saw the singer having lunch in the park with his wife and asked him for an autograph for me. I didn’t go to the show, though.
I remember one of the coldest February nights maybe 20 years ago at The Living Room(I can’t believe I just said that) we gathered to see our friends OJC (Orange Jam Conspiracy) play. It was so cold that some equipment didn’t work and there were two of those tubular heaters that spew flames out. I remember climbing over mounds of ice in the parking lot just getting to the front door.
These are all the things that Providence was great for: Club Hell, Living Room, Club Babyhead, Lupos, etc.
SG: Are you mad that I still haven’t painted that neon can sign that you made that is in my office
next to the other personal projects I haven’t gotten too ? …… now that I’m thinking of it I’m totally going to do this week
NMK:I forgot. It would be neat but the guy I gave it to is always busy with work. We have to put some neon in your shop somewhere!
SG: Any shout outs ? Book recommendations ?
Or general life advice for any aspiring artists that haven’t had reality hit them yet ?
NMK: Sure! Big shout out to my wife and mother of my child (Cassie McKnight). She’s designing four
shows for next summer season for Theatre By The Sea in Matunuck, RI. I wish I had time to read a book.
I have a business and a toddler at home. I advise anyone who is creative to keep making; stay. It doesn’t
have to be for commercial gain or followers. Just make work if you’re happy doing it. If you want to make
money, market yourself, charge your worth, keep getting rejected until you don’t.
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Shawn Gilheeney is a painter and printmaker born in Providence, Rhode Island . Founder of Providence Painted Signs he will find himself perpetually with a paintbrush in his hand until his near death, due to dedication and lack of any financial planning or safety net .
