Long Before Haworth Art Prints: A Story of Creativity, History and Sleepless Nights

If you had told me a year ago that I would be launching Haworth Art Prints, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. But looking back, maybe I should have seen it coming. Long before Echoes of the West and Dust and Glory; before I was creating Western landscapes, horses, cowboys and pieces inspired by the history of the American West, there were two things that had always been part of my life. History and art. And both, in many ways, began with my PaPa.

The Man Who Made History Come Alive

My PaPa was the first person to spark my love of history. To him, history wasn’t something confined to the pages of a textbook. It was something that had been lived, something worth remembering and something he wanted his grandchildren to understand. He often told stories about his journey to Japan and back during the Korean War and meeting General MacArthur. Through those stories, history became personal to me. These weren’t simply dates and events that happened to people in a distant past. They were experiences that had shaped the lives of people I knew and loved. He also believed that some lessons were better learned outside a classroom. He took me to the Oklahoma State Capitol and showed me how government worked. And every once in a while, he would even take me out of elementary school so I could experience an important historical event happening in Oklahoma City. I can still remember being able to experience the Centennial Land Run Parade with him. I don’t think I understood at the time just how much those experiences would shape me. But they did. He taught me to be curious about what came before us - to look at a place, an old photograph or an object and wonder about the people who had been there first. That curiosity eventually became a lifelong love of history.

A.B. Clement, Jr. with four of his grandchildren at Oklahoma’s 1989 Centennial celebration of the Land Run of 1889. Kristin, far left, remembers her PaPa taking her out of elementary school so she could experience the historic occasion firsthand—one of many ways he nurtured her lifelong love of history.

He Was an Artist, Too

There was another side of my grandfather that has stayed with me and my siblings. He was an artist. His mediums were painting and sketching. He could work with paint, charcoal and his own hands to create something from a blank surface. That particular gift skipped me. I never developed the ability - or perhaps the desire - to sit down with a canvas and get my hands covered in paint. My hands found something different.

A computer.

And later, Photoshop. The medium may have changed between generations but I’ve come to realize that the instinct to create didn’t. He created with brushes, pencils and charcoal. I create with a mouse, a pen tablet and a screen. Different tools. Same blank canvas.

Before Haworth Art Prints, There Was a High School Computer

My relationship with digital design began long before Haworth Art Prints. I started designing on a computer in high school at Edmond Santa Fe. My freshman year of high school my favorite elective of all time was Mr. Caram’s Journalism class. At the end of the school year we spent time learning and creating; advertising. That class led me to enrolling in Marketing my senior year and serving as President of our DECA chapter. While DECA introduced me to business and marketing, my favorite contribution was decidedly creative. I designed virtually everything for our chapter - event invitations, flyers, promotional materials and window design. Give me a blank screen and something that needed to be created and I can happily lose myself in it. Around the same time, I was fortunate enough to participate for four years in the Explorers Program with the Boys Scouts. Through that program, I spent time learning from the graphic designers at The Daily Oklahoman and getting real hands-on experience. I had the opportunity to see how professional designers approached their work and then put some of those lessons into practice by designing artwork and advertisements for our student newspaper. This was at a time when digital design wasn’t nearly as accessible as it is today. There weren’t endless templates waiting to be customized. You had to learn the software (this was the ending era of DOS). And I loved learning it.

Marketing Was the Plan. History Had Other Ideas.

When it came time for college, marketing seemed like the natural choice. I enrolled at The University of Central Oklahoma intending to pursue it. Marketing combined so many things I already enjoyed; creativity, communication and design. There was just one problem. I loved history more. Eventually, history won - way one down the line. I spent 2001 through 2012, as the Marketing Director for three local REMAX offices. I knew I was not going to be happy in life until I went back to school and got that degree. In 2015, I graduated from UCO with a Bachelor of Arts in History. Some of my favorite courses were taught by Dr. Patricia Loughlin, whose classes only deepened my appreciation for understanding history through the lives and experiences of the people who lived it; especially in the West. In some ways, I think that traced directly back to my grandfather. He was the first person who taught me that history wasn't simply about memorizing what happened. It was about understanding people and their stories. I didn't know it then, but years later that same idea would become an important part of the art I create.

Creativity in the Hours When the World Is Asleep

After undergoing treatment for breast cancer last year, life changed in ways both big and small. One of the lingering changes has been insomnia, along with nights when acid reflux decides it has absolutely no intention of letting me sleep. There are a lot of hours between midnight and morning when the rest of the world seems incredibly quiet. Eventually, I decided I needed to do something with them. Instead of concentrating on the fact that I wasn't sleeping, I wanted to concentrate that energy into something creative. So I went back to something that had always felt natural. I started designing. There was no plan to launch an art business. There wasn't even a plan to create a collection. I simply wanted to design one piece of artwork for my home library. I wanted something that felt aged and soulful. Something influenced by my love of history and the American West. Something that looked as though there might be a story behind it. So I created one. And then I created another. And another. Before I realized what was happening, the single piece I had imagined for my library had become an entire collection. I called it Echoes of the West.

Then Came Dust and Glory

My sister, Melissa, helped push the story a little further. She knew someone whose cowboy-themed office needed a refresh and suggested that I create artwork for the space. That sent my imagination in another direction. Rodeo arenas. Cowboys sitting along fences. Cowgirls and horses. Weathered hats. Boots, leather and dust. The anticipation before a gate opens and those quieter moments after the arena empties. From those images came my second collection: Dust and Glory. While Echoes of the West is deeply influenced by history, landscape and the enduring spirit of the American West, Dust and Glory explores cowboy and rodeo culture—the people, horses, traditions and moments that have become inseparable from our idea of the West. And suddenly, what had started as one piece for my library had become something much bigger.

Different Tools, Same Blank Canvas.

The more I think about how Haworth Art Prints came to be, the more I realize that perhaps none of this is as unexpected as it first seemed. My grandfather put a love of history in me before I was old enough to understand what that would mean. He was also an artist. Years later, I discovered my own way of creating. I didn't inherit his paint-covered hands. Mine know their way around a computer and Photoshop instead. But perhaps the medium isn't the important part. He could look at a blank piece of paper or canvas and imagine what could exist there. I can sit in front of a blank screen and do the same. There is something incredibly special to me about realizing that all these years later.

What’s Next?

I'm dreaming that up now. There is another collection beginning to take shape in my imagination, and for now I'm giving myself permission to simply see where it leads. That's how all of this began, after all. No grand business plan. No carefully mapped-out collection. Just a sleepless night, a blank screen and an idea for a piece of artwork I wanted to hang in my library. But maybe the story actually started much earlier than that. Maybe it started with a grandfather telling his granddaughter about traveling to Japan during the Korean War. Maybe it started during a trip to the Oklahoma State Capitol. Maybe it started when he decided that witnessing an important moment in Oklahoma history was worth missing a day of elementary school. Maybe it started while I watched him create art with his own hands. And maybe, years later, all of those pieces simply found their way back to me. One piece became Echoes of the West. Echoes of the West led to Dust and Glory. And together, they became Haworth Art Prints. I'm not sure yet what comes next. But I can't wait to create it.

— Kristin Haworth