I am Simon Knuth, pseudonym Psymon, and I am a Chicago native and senior in fine arts and graphic design at Columbia College Chicago. Through my artistic practice I reconstruct and explore worlds outside of our own. This usually takes the form of the distant past or future, worlds I have been fascinated by since my childhood spent in natural history and science museums, though sometimes I recreate other places, like those we experience in our memories or dreams. Since my work often deals with scientific topics, I have found it effective and interesting to appropriate the visual and pedagogical language of museum exhibits in many of my installations. I believe doing so also encourages viewers to approach my work as serious speculation and exploration, rather than as pure science fiction or fantasy.

Outside of my installation focused work, I am particularly enamored with the mediums of jewelry and printmaking. Both are meticulous processes that I naturally gravitate towards, and methods such as etching and enameling allow me to fulfill my more purely aesthetic sensibilities alongside the conceptual bent of much of my art. That being said, I really appreciate the conceptual side of printmaking and metalwork, and I am fascinated with the ways that both mediums can resemble and relate to fossils and geology through processes of pressing, imprinting, and encasing. Additionally, I hold a real affection for oil painting and hope to continue to build my skills in this medium alongside the dozens of other mediums I have experimented with in my diverse work. I believe that like the evolution of our planet and its life that I explore in my work the evolution of the artist is never over.