March 2024
Spring is here and that means new beginnings! My goal for this year is to shift the focus of my shop, and I’ll be doing a lot of work behind the scenes this month to make that happen. I’ll be ordering some new equipment, opening up commissions and, starting to add stickers to my online shop for you all to enjoy. I cannot wait for you all to see the designs I’ve been making for you all behind the scenes over the last year (Especially if you’re a fan of Silent Hill)! I’m also releasing sticker versions of many of my paintings. Many of the originals were taken down last month to make room for their sticker siblings. It’s my hope that this will bring accessibility to my artwork and allow you all to have little galleries of your own.
On the creative front, my new studio is almost all put together, so I’ll get to break it in this month. I’m hoping to start resuming streaming and making things with you all very soon.
And finally, I’m going to be at PAX EAST this month! I’m attending as a guest on Saturday and I’m planning on bringing with me a bag of stickers to give out to anyone who comes to say “hi” (and to all the pretty cosplayers). Video games are a special interest of mine, and I’ve been trying to find ways to integrate that into my art since my thesis in college. Stickers finally allow me to do that. I’m absolutely over the moon that I get to go to a game convention this month, hand out my stickers and make new friends. I hope to see you all there!
February 2024
In January, I started my year off wit a nighttime market at a local coffee shop. I had an absolute blast! I got to meet so many local makers and got a glimpse into a new side of my community that I hadn’t seen before. There truly was magic in the air with all of the talent that attended.
In February, my own studio building will resume hosting creative sessions every week on Tuesdays. Every Tuesday night at 5:30 pm, Main street studios will open their door until 8 PM so that local creatives can hang out and make stuff with other Creatives. I’m extremely excited to see who drops in to create with us. I plan on attending as many of these evenings as physically possible. If you’re in or around Fitchburg, MA, come say hi and bring a project to work on with us!
In personal news, I’m currently running a sale of rather impractical and astonishing proportions in my shop. I have approximately 90 items including all of my original paintings marked down at 60% off. For many of my pieces, that barely covers the cost of shipping, so why am I doing this? Simply put: I need room. I’ve been creating and building my current inventory since about 2018. Artistically, so much about my style has changed since then. I’ve changed a lot physically too. I have so much work that I never had the energy to properly promote just sitting around my studio, and that work doesn’t properly reflect who I am as an artist or a person anymore. I also have work I never even showed anyone because I simply forgot about it. (oops) After this sale, all of that work will likely go into grab bags where what’s inside is a mystery. Some pieces will also become permanently unavailable as I’ll reclaim them for use in my own home. More importantly though, I’ll have space in my studio and in my shop to create more things. I’ll be switching up my inventory to mostly include items that I can reproduce easily such as stickers so that I have more time and energy to devote to making each individual painting. This will also open up some time to work on commissions and custom pieces. I’ll spend this month working up a price scale for commissions, taking product photos, creating listings for stickers, and generally preparing my shop for a grand re-opening next month. I’ve never had the energy or the time to properly put into my shop and my branding, so this is an exciting new journey for me. I really hope that this shift makes my work more accessible to everyone (including myself lol). If you have any ideas for things you’d like to see more of or works you’d like to commission me for, you’re always welcome to send me an email at Katarinaart@icloud.com. I would love to read all o your suggestions!
Until next month <3
Kat
Happy New Year! January 2024
Every January, people and businesses everywhere start announcing their resolutions and plans for the upcoming year. January is a time for hopes, dreams, and plans. But if there’s one thing that I can count on as a person with multiple disabilities, it’s that my plans will fail.
Now that doesn’t mean I’m going to get all cynical on you! That just means that I have to plan space for those failures along the way. This year, my plans are going to better take into account my limited energy reserves and mental limitations. I’m really liking designing stickers and making items that reproduce well. Rather than trying to pump out a bunch of original art and hope it sells, I get to spend a lot of time with something and price it affordably. I like that. It fits well with my style and what I stand for.
Now this also means that im going to have to clear out some inventory from my shop so that it feels more manageable. I’m hoping that sometime this month, I’ll be able to run some sort of sale or promotional event to help with that. So if you’ve got your eye on anything of mine, feel free to send me an email at Katarinaart@icloud.com and shoot your shot. I might just let it go for a steep discount.
Something I loved about last year was making it out to see people in person. I’d like to continue selling at in person events. I will be more selective this year about which ones I sign up for so I can find places more my vibe.
On that note, I’ll be at an event at Smokestack Roasters on the 20th of this month. Heart and Soul Entreprenurial Market & Music will run from 5:30 pm-9:30 PM. I hope to see you all there for some magic, music and coffee!!!
December 2023
The cold weather always brings reflection with it for me. As the frost and the winter breeze sets in, I settle and start to reflect on the last year. I stop posting as much, stop talking, and start thinking, absorbing, reading, and planning. This year is no different. The last few months, I think I’ve been pretty frustrated with my overall progress. I’ve felt pretty stagnant. Pretty stuck. But this month, as I take inventory of it all, I realize I’ve accomplished so much more than I had ever dared to hope last December. Sure, my online presence is a mess, but I cannot even count how many markets I attended this past year. I got a studio space again and that was freaking huge for me. I’ve made so many art friends and adapted to meet the needs of my priorities. I’ve made myself and my health a priority. I did 4 months of Physical Therapy. I’ve shown my work in Worcester and in Fitchburg gallery spaces. I’ve made art and written about it. And I think I finally figured out what my art is actually about. I never expected to do most of these things. Last year, when I thought about my limits and my art, I was so depressed because I could not feasibly imagine taking my art out into the world. I couldn’t imagine being well enough to talk to people at vending events and make those connections that I knew I needed with local groups. And now… now I’m realizing that accepting that I’m disabled doesn’t mean that I have to compromise on my artistic dreams and aspirations. I can do so much more than I imagined possible a year ago. I just have to be smart about it and take care of myself along the way.
Here’s to 2023 and all the stresses, friends, opportunities and reflections it brought me. I can’t wait to see what happens next year. I bet it’s going to be awesome.