Meet Jayda (Aka Flying Knight) Knight: Visual & street artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jayda (Aka Flying Knight) Knight and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jayda, what’s your definition for success?
For me at least, I feel success is a combination of all these factors: 1. The ride had to be challenging. If I got here easy, I am probably not doing something right. 2. I learned along the way and I grew spiritually. 3. I created a positive impact on the world and people. 4. I am happy and healthy. 5. All the above adds up to one final thought I have always told myself as a child and keeps me going (especially now more than ever with social media) which is :Success if not about getting ahead of others but getting ahead of yourself. Whenever I get this feeling, I know I achieved success. 

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am known as the Flying Knight (her pseudonym), I am Miami based Pop-artist who is best known for my window artwork on Lincoln Road on Miami Beach. I studied at the Rhode Island School of Design. Having graduated with a degree in Fine Arts & Architecture I went on to work in New York City doing set-design, briefly for Saturday Night Live and then independently. I had Eugene Lee as one of my professors at RISD and he took me under his wing. I loved Set design, I loved that you could let your imagination go wild and run with it at full speed and then it would be over and you move onto the next one. It is very transitional which, perhaps complimented my nature. I see these windows as a kind of set-design but what makes it more fun is that, unlike conventional set-design, I like the audience to be the cast. After I did my first window, the Lincoln Road Business Improvement District (LRBID) who, I collaborate with, rang me up and said “So this other empty location wants that same art for their window too, is that ok”? “My reaction was “No” (laughingly), I told them that I wanted to create unique art for each location”. When the LRBID gives me a location/window, I go scout it out, I will sit and watch people go by, see what businesses are adjacent, I look at the facade, details and colors of the building that hosts it and then I go back to my table with markers & paints”. My work can be called bold, colorful and often humorous. I am inspired by Pop-art & the whimsical Art deco of miami Beach. I love playing with color, everyone loves color no matter how black & white their homes or wardrobes are. It makes you happy and feeling young. My pseudonym Flying Knight comes from that, “I like to think that color flies through my fingers”. My work on Lincoln Road has become quite an Instagrammable theatrical experience. Passer-byers take note. I saw one guy on Instagram, who actually used one of my windows as a backdrop and he even matched his outfit. Now that’s a performance. “What is happening on Lincoln road is just part of it’s long-going evolution so why not embrace it and make it a stage. The show must go on”. Inside, I also do paintings and custom unique fun wallpapers for clients homes and businesses.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I always take them to South Pointe at sunset and the Yellow-Green market in Hollywood.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I feel my parents. I am fortunate to have two outstanding open-minded human beings bring me up. They always encouraged me to see where my heart points and run in that direction. If not, your heart eventually catches up but it might be too late. I also had some hard-headed bosses who in retrospect were kind of mentors (even if I didn’t think so at the time). One of them was a hardcore real estate developer in manhattan who helped shape my back bone which one needs in this world. He taught me to never take “No” as an answer and that “Nothing in life is free”.

Website: www.flyingknight.art
Instagram: @flyingknight

Image Credits
@mingo.photography @flyingknight