Derek Knight is a ceramic artist and drag queen based out of Morgantown, West Virginia. They Graduated West Virginia University in 2020 with a B.F.A in Ceramics. They use their work to discuss queer culture and mental health. Their goal is to work for different organization to provide opportunities to students who might not be able to afford to learn or work with art.

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"When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else." - Georgia O'Keeffe

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"Flowers are often associated with femininity, beauty and sexuality.  I’ve always been intrigued by flowers; their fleeting beauty has mesmerized me, and I found comfort in finding beauty in the imperfectly perfect. By creating flowers, I explore frailty, sexuality, and beauty not only within myself but also in society. As a gay Latinx person who has always struggled with my identity with gender and sexuality I found comfort in using flowers to express that struggle. My work has become a therapeutic release for me to break the social boundaries that have been forced upon me. Even something as simple as me creating and discussing my work already breaks the mold and goes against what I have been taught what it means to be a man. 

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I challenge myself in trying to capture the essence of what flowers are and what they represent in a material that is inherently different but shares similarities. Flowers are soft, gentle and can die and are ephemeral while ceramics are hard and archival, but they can also be fragile. Clay on the other hand shares many similarities with flowers, clay is also soft and ephemeral. Clay can be molded and affected by any touch and once clay dries it can return to its original form and also break making it impermanent. Ceramics can never truly capture what a flower is, but it can still be beautiful. I want my work to be an expression of who I am but spark conversation and mutual understanding." -Derek Knight