Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Katherine Williams of Columbus

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Katherine Williams. Check out our conversation below.

Good morning Katherine, it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
Anytime I’m working on my art it always feels like I’m lost in time. When I start a new piece there’s no telling when I’ll be done. Some will take me a couple hours, others a day, and some will take me a week or a month. It honestly depends on how high my creative juices are flowing in that moment. There’s been times where I started working on a piece at 7:45pm and by the time I put my pen down its 2am. I call it a “creative trance” which is something I define as a moment in time where everything in the real world freezes and nothing else but me, my tablet, and pen exist.

Overall once I feel the piece has reached a finished state, that’s when I look back at the clock. I tap out of my drawing software, my drawing tablet is turned off and I’m back to reality.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Katherine Williams and I’m an Animator and Illustrator from Ohio. I graduated from the Columbus College of Art & Design in 2020 with a Bachelor’s degree in Animation and have been working freelance. Since then I’ve been diving into the Illustration world, experimenting with animation and teaching. As of right now I’ve been teaching 2D Animation, Character Design, and Color Theory for about 3 1/2 years at my college to youth in my community.

I also work with special needs kids in a classroom setting during the week as my 9-5 job. Even though education is my main occupation at the moment, it hasn’t stopped me from trying to pursue a career in the arts. I’m always on the lookout for opportunities and taking on projects that my network of fellow artists send my way(when I can).

As far as personal projects go I’m currently working on creating my own superhero universe(since I was a fan of the genre growing up) and redoing my senior project from undergrad.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
Volleyball season during my senior year of High School.

We were having a hard time winning games. Tensions were really high that whole season and it affected how we played greatly. There were a lot of freshmen on the team that year along with a couple sophomores, and we had a total of 3 seniors (I was one of the them). The 3 of us had played a lot longer than everyone else on the team so we were selected as captains. It was the first time I’d ever been in a major leadership role and I often times felt like I shouldn’t have been in that position.

Due to my personality, I would say I’m more like someone who follows orders like a soldier and does what I’m told. But since my coach wanted me to help lead the team that’s what I decided to do. It was weird at first, but when I started noticing the negative atmosphere affecting my teammates I just sucked it up and embraced the challenge head on.
You could tell at first glance that our team was divided by how the freshmen looked at the seniors, vice versa how the seniors treated the freshmen. I was the senior caught in the middle because I was close friends with most of the freshmen and me and the other 2 seniors practically grew up together.
Due to my own personal experience I treated all of my teammates with the same level of respect no matter how experienced or inexperienced they were with the sport. I never once used my position as captain to look down on my team and focused more of my energy on supporting them.

It got really bad during one game where we were losing after starting out being in the lead. The other seniors were pissed off with the freshmen for messing up and the freshmen were angry with the seniors for laughing off their own mistakes instead of sharing the blame for the outcome of the game. I could start to see the stress building up in the younger players because they couldn’t handle the constant disrespect and ridicule for how they were playing and my fellow seniors were furious because they wanted to make it to the championship for our final season. When our coach called timeout both sides immediately started arguing with each other and that was the breaking point. I put my foot down and told both sides to knock it off(can’t remember my exact words) so we could focus on playing the game. I also told the other seniors to back off the freshmen because they weren’t the only ones making mistakes in this game. Everyone finally calmed down after that and just played the game. I can’t remember if we won or lost, but the other seniors laid off the freshmen after that. My coach came over, and thanked me for stepping up by putting myself in the middle to get the team back on track.
That moment still shocks me to this day because I never saw myself strong enough to do something like that.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
Get out of your comfort box and Live! Even if there’s a possibility you’ll fail don’t let Fear hold you back, because you’ll miss out on the good things in life coming your way.

Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
My faith. I grew up in a Christian household and even to this day I still try to remain faithful to my beliefs. I wouldn’t be able to navigate this journey of life without God’s guidance. My friends know this and see it with their own eyes. Even though some of them come from different walks of life I am amazed, and grateful for the level of respect we have for each other. Just like every other human being on Earth I am not perfect, but I strive to be like Christ every single day.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: When do you feel most at peace?
When I’m drawing on my tablet with my Spotify on blast in the background. Doesn’t matter if it’s day or night, as long as I have my pen in hand and music in my ears I’m in paradise. My playlists range from Gospel, Country, Afro beats, K-pop, to Cinematic Scores for films. The sound ignites my creative juices and gets me in the zone.

Almost all of my art is made to the sound of music. The type of music depends on my mood and what I’m drawing at the time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artofkwilliams.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kwillanimations/
• Twitter: https://x.com/KWilliams2697
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4umyBEVx3U04AXnQ3sqMWQ