Passion for art and her alma mater have come full circle for Niki Baker, whose paintings are some of the few pieces licensed by Kansas State University.
Baker graduated from K-State in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. In 2020, she began creating a collection of paintings depicting K-State’s mascot through the years as well as a painting of the purple Powercat logo.
“I researched the history of the logos, and when painting just the Powercat, I felt like I wanted all of them,” Baker said. “After doing all my research, I thought it was really fascinating how they had changed over the years.”
Niki Baker’s paintings are on display at Danenberg Jewelers on Poyntz Avenue in Manhattan. They’ve been in the downtown jewelry store since November 2023.
Baker completed four of her six heavy acrylic paintings in 2020 and the last two in early 2021.
“I got some pretty good feedback from some friends and family about what I created, and that’s when I decided that maybe other people would enjoy them like I did,” she said. “That’s when I started my journey to try and get them licensed by the university itself.”
Having her paintings licensed allows Baker to sell art with the school’s copyrighted mascot, though she said the licensing process was a long and nerve-wracking experience.
“They’ve never done this before,” Baker said. “I think I found, as far as artwork, one watercolor, and I don’t know if it had the actual logo of the Wildcat in it. I had to figure out who the licensing company was who K-State worked with, and I had to submit my designs to them. Usually it takes, it depends on the university, but I was expecting two to six months of a response.”
Baker said she did not expect to get approval for her work because K-State had never given its approval before, especially with the Wabash collection, which are the five vintage Wildcat logos.
“I was pretty much expecting it to be a no, nothing like that on the market,” Baker said. “Surprisingly, they said yes to all of them, so it was a super exciting moment, especially coming full circle when I graduated from there with my art degree.”
After the university approved the licensing, Baker went through the process of signing legal documents and getting art insurance before being able to sell the work.
Baker said any items licensed by the university must go through this process, not just art.
“The whole time, from submitting it to actually being able to go live and announce that I was able to do it was roughly, I’d say, nine months to a year,” she said.
Niki Baker hangs up one of her paintings at Danenberg Jewelers in Manhattan.
Since 2021, Baker has sold prints of these paintings.
With each sale, a percentage of the profit goes to K-State. For instance, when Baker started, 18% went to the university for the logos from the Wabash collection, and 15% went to the university for the Powercat logo.
“It’s a good amount that goes back to the school, and it feels good to be able to do that with being an artist,” Baker said. “It’s not something that, when I graduated, I thought I’ll be able to give back to the school in a way that supports my art and also supports the school.”
Baker said she didn’t think having just the Powercat on the wall was saying enough about K-State because there was more to the university’s story. “I find the history really fascinating,” Baker said. “When I first started researching, I first saw the Willie with the flag, and I thought that was really cool, but the more that I researched and learned about the past logos, the more I got stuck in this big rabbit hole of how K-State started, what it started out as, where it came from, how the logos changed, who the artists were, why they changed it. So it snowballed into this big project.”
Baker displayed the collection at the K-State Student Union’s art gallery first, in 2021. She wanted the public, especially K-Staters, to see it.
She said her most popular prints from the K-State collection are the vintage Willie Wildcat holding a flag and the Powercat. Baker also did a painting for the new Tracz Family Band Hall, which is located in the northwest wing of World War I Memorial Stadium.
“That was also a full-circle moment since I had sculpture class in that building,” Baker said.
Niki Baker’s painting of the purple Powercat logo is on display at Danenberg Jewelers on Poyntz Avenue.
Baker’s K-State collection is currently on display at Danenberg Jewelers on Poyntz Avenue in downtown Manhattan.
“After showcasing them in the union, I thought that was great, but I wanted to be able for the public to see them,” she said. “I’ve had so much feedback from alumni that I wanted them to be able to see it. I wanted to partner with somebody who also had a big passion for K-State.”
The paintings have been on display there since late November and will continue to be on display until April for the upcoming Downtown Art Walk on April 13. Then the paintings will be sent back to Texas, where Baker currently lives.
“Being licensed by the university has been an extremely high honor to hold,” she said. “I hope it inspires other artists from K-State or even just around the world to follow your passion and what you want to create and shoot for those hurdles that you think you wouldn’t necessarily get the answer of a yes to. It still surprises me that I have this honor and it means a lot.”
