Meet Niki Waters of Knees + Keys in Oakland

Today we’d like to introduce you to Niki Waters.

Niki, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
When I was three years old, I picked up an orange crayon and pushed that waxy substance against a sheet of printer paper. Ever since that moment, I knew that I was in love. Almost every decision I made in my life since then was made to ensure that I can continue making art in any capacity. That’s the short version of my story.

To elaborate on my background – my family moved around a lot. My Filipino mom and American dad met as pen pals, got married, and traveled the world together as International School teachers. They took my sister and me along for the ride. Growing up, I had two things that never left me or that I never left – my immediate family and drawing. I held on to them both very dearly.

It was always difficult to pick our lives up and start over – the most difficult move being in 2000. I was 12, and we moved from Vietnam (which I loved – great group of friends, friendly locals) to the Philippines. I went to a very elite private high school in the Philippines because my parents taught there. The cultural shock, as well as the shock of a defined class system really made me feel like quite the outsider. I dove deeper into art, focusing on it heavily through middle and high school.

When it came time to figure out the whole college situation, I had no clue. I was hardly familiar with the U.S. post-secondary education system and had no idea what I wanted to do (well, I did… but at the time wasn’t aware that there were universities that had an art focus). But then, BAM. I received a thick brochure from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco (it was a Deus Ex Machina move, for sure). I applied and got in. No big feat, they let everyone in, but at least I knew where I was going and what I was going to do.

I moved to San Francisco for art school in 2006. I loved it – both the city and school. I was happy to be surrounded by so many people who were as passionate about the arts as I was. I immersed myself fully into school and worked my ass off for five years.

When I graduated in 2011, I got the craziest career whiplash of my life. I was so burnt out and scared that what I wanted to pursue (screen printing at the time) was going to be inaccessible that I kind-of stopped doing art for a while. I also didn’t really party much in college so after I graduated, I kind-of went balls to the walls for a couple of years. I regret these actions to this day – I wasted a lot of time and opportunities back then.

But I got back on the saddle. My partner and I started dating five years ago – we met at school and had known each other for a long time, and our friendship blossomed into more. Our relationship has undeniably benefited our careers. We have been each other’s biggest support system, and I attribute a lot of our success to our commitment to each other.

I started putting myself out there as an artist in the past couple of years, and the response has been highly positive. I’ve been rewarded with the successes of fun art projects, like working with SOMA Pilipinas to come up with public works designs for our the Philippine district or making comic strips for College Humor. I have met awesome artists and creatives, and have made my home beautiful with their work. I have met other amazing Filipinos more recently – I didn’t know there were so much of us out here and that we’re so active in the community! Being an active artist has totally changed my life over the past couple of years. Pretty stoked to see what comes next.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Not at all. I pride myself in being a super hard worker when it comes to things I’m passionate about, but the business aspect of being an artist was (and still is, kind-of) very foreign and un-enjoyable to me. I spent so much of my high school time working on art and went to art school in college. I did really well in school, but after graduating I didn’t have any sense of direction. The fear of not knowing what to do next, of not being directed by teachers or mentors, left me lost for an embarrassingly long amount of time. I’m finally starting to see the successes of my hard work (i.e., working on the not-so-fun business stuff), and the feeling of success outweighs the pain-in-the-ass business work.

The other major struggle that I worked through was the struggle to find my artistic style and to commit to it. As a young artist, I was so inspired by so many talented, successful artists. Carefully observing and trying to emulate these other artists’ styles was kind of like drinking from a fire hose. It was just too much. It left me confused as to what my voice was. Once I was able to separate my appreciation for other artists’ work from trying to emulate them, I finally found my voice.

Please tell us about Knees + Keys.
I’m a freelance illustrator/maker and my company’s name is Knees + Keys. My recent body of personal work illustrates my childhood in the Philippines and my current life in the Bay Area. My goal is to get people to connect with my work in some way for them to feel nostalgia. My work is very loud, colorful and vibrant – super unrealistic looking – but people still connect with it. That’s what I think makes it special. That’s what illustration should do.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
That’s a really good, but tough question! Hindsight is 20/20, but if I could go back and give my recently-graduated self some stern advice – “NIKI! Oh my God. People from publishing companies want to work with you but you have your head so far up your ass because you think you want to be a full-time silkscreen printer. You can still print in your free time, but for the love of GOD – take these publishing companies up on their offers! Take their advice! Make your portfolio marketable to them!!!!”

Pricing:

• Spot Illustration – $150
• Full-Page Illustration – $250
• Double-Page (Spread) Illustration – $350
• Bulk Discounts for 5+ Illustrations – 15%

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kneesandkeys.com
• Email: niki@kneesandkeys.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/kneesandkeysart

Image Credit:
Photos taken by Craig Fowler, Illustrations by Niki Waters

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