Katie Jett Walls is a Washington DC-based visual artist with a studio in the Petworth neighborhood. Born in 1977 in Oklahoma City, OK, Walls has lived in rural Montana, the Deep South and the Washington DC suburbs before finding home in the Takoma Park neighborhood of the District.
Her career in the arts began in 2005, as a photographer for weddings and families, expanding to include commercial work as well as personal documentary projects including a residency in Montgomery, Alabama in 2019, during which she documented landscapes of the Black Belt region and locations peripheral to the Civil Rights Movement.
During the 2020-2021 Coronavirus pandemic, Katie’s photography work dwindled and she used the forced sabbatical to learn first mixed media collage and then abstract painting. While considered “self-taught”, Walls reinforced her artistic practice through courses with artist-mentors Melinda Tidwell and Nicholas Wilton.
In 2023 she moved into her first studio and joined the committee running the artist-led Willow Street Gallery. In that capacity, Katie both participated in and curated group shows. In the summer of 2023, Walls attended a residency at the Thunderbird Foundation, at the historic home and studio of mid-century artist Maynard Dixon, in Orderville, Utah. She returned the following summer for a second residency there.
In 2024/25 Walls participated in group shows with Takoma ARTery, and with the Women's Caucus on Art. In 2025 she moved to her current studio space at Crestworth, as well as having her first solo show, “The Shape of Becoming” at Willow Street Gallery. She leads community art classes on Meditative Collage, and occasionally an Arts & Artists book club to share her obsession with biographies of women artists.
Walls is a 2025 recipient of the DC Commission on Arts & Humanities Fellowship Grant.
When she’s not behind a camera or in front of an easel, you might find her swimming laps, hiking in Rock Creek Park, or road-tripping out West with her family in their little camper named Pearl. This makes her sound athletic, which she is not, but she does love being outside in the sunshine.
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Photo credit: Katie Jett Walls.
