Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kate Rouchell. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kate, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had started sooner?
Living a life free of regrets is often impossible. Whether we call them “regrets” or “things we’d wished we’d done differently”, it’s always an exercise in fantasy to imagine what butterfly effect one small (or large!) decision would have made on our current life trajectory.
Ultimately, I have few regrets in life because I choose to believe that the life I’m living is the ultimate gift. I know, I know, that sounds gross and lofty, but ultimately I believe it to be true.
I have been a creative individual since I can remember. My mom is an interior designer and I distinctly remember working in the spec room of her offices, creating any and everything from project boards to small, intricate worlds for my toys.
I went to school in California and graduated with a degree in theatre arts because, well, because I wanted to be a STAR! I do enjoy acting (a LOT), and I find that my thespian nature comes in handy in social situations and when I am reading chapter books to my 7 year old daughter, however, I have landed back at the beginning as a visual artist.
Things I may have changed in my life’s course thus far would have been to 1. attend USC as opposed to a state school in California, 2. Continued visual arts exploration throughout college in the form of set design and creative direction 3. I would have and still do heed the often uncomfortable importance of networking.
I have worked my tail off since I was thirteen years old. The first business I started was called “Kate’s Katering” wherein I sold. lunches to the businesses around my Mom’s interior design studio office. I have always had the entrepreneur bone and while I love it, it’s also one of the hardest things to hold together: discipline and inspiration.
If I had started my visual creative art journey sooner, perhaps I’d be a more proficient artist with more “tricks” and “trades”, but ultimately I am not sure I would have known enough to value what that meant.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Kate.
I have been an artist for as long as I can remember – from working within the spec room in my mom’s interior design offices, to graduating with a degree in theatre arts, to growing a visual artist into a multi-million-dollar brand, to my proudest original accomplishment: creating a beautiful daughter with my highly gifted partner, film composer and music producer, John Michael Rouchell.
I started growing my own personal art collections during the height of the pandemic in April of 2020. What started as a meditative exploration of watercolors, acrylics, ceramics and beaded jewelry (wearable art) quickly became a burgeoning business.
From working with interior design juggernauts to commercial installations as well as hospital recovery rooms, I have helped adorn spaces with beauty. Additionally, I have created a robust commission list complete with everything from butterflies to abstract expressions to portraits. Having worked with larger brands in the past, I am able to thread the needle between fan favorites and meaningful expressions of my own creative rhythm.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
It’s April 2020. The world, as we know it, is in utter free fall with the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic. I have a two-year-old daughter who is the absolute light of my life, as well as a full-time job as the president of a massive art company.
The day after mothers day, I lose my job.
Talk about a free fall. And yet, I am happier than I could ever imagine. I have all I wanted: a loving partner and an amazing child. While we were all terrified and highly anxious about what was next and how we’d make it through, I always knew that this was the moment for me to really commit to myself and my family.
Luckily, I have the most solid foundation in family and friends and we not only maintained a value of living while I was able to take time to be with my daughter, make sure our family stayed healthy and happy and carefully outline my new path forward.
What may be an uncommon sentiment of the pandemic era, I had the luxury to genuinely enjoy that chapter of life. The collective exhale we didn’t know we needed.
When I think about what a miracle it was that I was forced to recon with my “self”, that is, my identity as a mother, partner, professional, friend, daughter and so many more character traits, I feel only gratitude that I lost my extremely well-paying, comfortably-padded jobby job in order to find my life’s true purpose: to be the beauty-seeking creative I AM.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being able to pursue what I was put on this earth to do is that I get to pass on the legacy of true passion onto my daughter.
Teaching and learning with Colette is my happiest, most rewarding place to be.
I work from home and in my studio space (we have two, my husband’s music studio is the spare bedroom and my space is our dining room) there is a special section just for Coco that she can access easily in order to express her artistic vision. We are currently playing with the concept of what I call “moments”, and what Coco calls “thoughts”. These are little collections of things around the house, vignettes, if you will, that tell an entire story. Fully prompted by Colette, I am riding high on this journey with her and perpetually awe-struck that she picks up on these small nuances of collections of things that give narrative to our life.
Additionally, I love sharing the joy of my art with people. There is nothing better than seeing your art in someone’s home. When you paint or sculpt or create, that piece is a part of you and you of it and so when you see your embodiment hanging on someone’s wall it gives this jolt that reminds me of Proust’s Madeleine. It’s something you know that you know, but you don’t know how you know it and yet you’re okay that it’s living outside of your body. If that makes ANY sense at all!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kategracebauer.com
- Instagram: @kategracebauer
- Facebook: @kategracebauer
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kategracebauer/
Image Credits
Kathleen Fitzgerald