Groveland woman has "Letterosis"

Artist and entrepreneur Jan Knudson, of Groveland, sits beneath photos of her two favorite words, “evolve” and “believe.” Amy Alonzo Rozak/Union Democrat

The letter “O” is spelled with a cone flower, and the “I” is the steeple of the Yosemite Valley Chapel.
 

Knudson is constantly on the lookout for letters in everyday places: The side of a stoplight in Escalon makes the letter “E.” Old wooden fence posts in Sonora create the letter “H.” A “J” can be found at the base of a coffee table.

“I almost always have my camera with me,” she said. “You never know where you’ll find something.”

What started as a contest between her and her sister has evolved into a business called Letterosis.

“We realized we kind of had a sickness of letters,” she said.

That sickness developed last year when Knudson and her sister, who lives in Wisconsin, took a road trip along the California coast. In the spirit of their youth, they decided to play a game.

“On that trip, she and I had a contest to see who could get the alphabet in the camera first,” she said.

At that point, her eyes became wide open: A plate of spaghetti in Morro Bay became the letter “Q,” and a fern in Big Sur was suddenly an “I.”

Knudson won the contest, and later realized that their game could become a business.

“I’m pretty tenacious,” the Groveland woman said. “Once I get an idea that I believe in and I think will work, I go for it.”

Her idea was to sell framed prints of letters pieced together to spell words and names.

Her first public showing was a year ago at a Groveland craft fair. That evolved into shops from Groveland to Sonora to Murphys and beyond carrying her art.

During the past year, Knudson has also sold her work at several art and wine festivals spanning the Bay Area and foothills.

Knudson, who turns 55 on Saturday, describes herself as a free spirit.

Earlier this week, while preparing for shows in Sacramento, Pomona and Groveland, she wore a shirt reading, “Live, Love, Laugh” in the style of her prints, the letter “V” made with tree branches.

Knudson spent most of her life in the Chicago area before buying a home in Pine Mountain Lake five years ago.

She describes having “various careers and jobs” over the years, including bartender of a five-star restaurant, personal assistant to a wealthy bond trader investor and facility manager for a company that made mesh sponges.

Knudson has had licenses for careers ranging from real estate to cosmetology.

“The biggest thing about me is I get bored very easily so I constantly need a challenge,” she said.

Knudson has been married to her husband, Jim, for the past nine years.

They owned a total of three Curves, gyms for women, in Illinois. After they sold the last Curves, they took a trip out to California to visit friends in Napa and Groveland.

The couple decided to buy their home in Pine Mountain Lake, and they still own a home in Illinois.

"I enjoy both places, but find myself spending more and more time here in California,” she said.

When moving to Groveland, her latest business was jewelry designing.

“I realized my style of jewelry just wasn’t right for Groveland so I had to reinvent myself,” she said.

So that led to Letterosis.

 In Knudson’s basement, she makes wood-and-glass frames of all different lengths. There’s a giant bag of packing peanuts along with boxes filled with hundreds of black-and-white letter prints.

At her workstation, the words “believe” and “evolve” are written on a Post-it note for inspiration.

“You’ve got to believe,” she said, “and you’ve got to let yourself evolve — give yourself permission to evolve.”