We recently connected with Caiti Rose and have shared our conversation below.

Caiti, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful projects (to me) are the collaborations I work on with non-profits (+individuals) making a positive impact. This has resulted in more than 100+ free downloads for everyone to enjoy and has always been an incredibly rewarding experience. Even the challenging creations (which might take longer to finish) help make a difference. Majority of these projects are coloring and activity booklets – but I’ve also created stationery sets, protest signs, and a few other types of ‘fun freebies’.

I think coloring and activity booklets (in stores) can be quite desirable… but that limits the reach and impact. I want everyone to be able to create a masterpiece of their own regardless of their financial situation. This is the main reason I don’t accept funds for these non-profit projects; my time and illustrations are 100% donated.

Some noteworthy booklets you can download:
Orca stationery (with info by Peggy Oki), ‘Nets Out Now’ coloring booklet with stationery and signs (Envoy film – Andre Borell), The Adventures of Zee and Alayziah (featuring Zee & Alayziah!), How To Tag a Shark (with Sharks4Kids), The Girl from the Ocean (with Cristina Zenato), a booklet featuring Irene Marcoux and her Ocean friends (I haven’t made the cover page just yet, but the booklet can still be downloaded), and ‘Fight for the Ocean and our waterways’ (with Food Empowerment Project – – this one includes an activity on every page!).

You can find the 100+ free downloads here: www.sharktopia.org/downloads

Caiti, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for taking a few moments of your day to learn about me and my little Sharktopia. My name is Caiti [Kay-tee]. I’m a coffee-loving, happy vegan, Ocean artist with the goal of altering the misconceptions surrounding sharks and other Ocean life.

My first experience with art occurred at a very young age. On September 12, 1984 – I was born with nerve damage to the 5th and 6th vertebrae (Erb’s Duchenne Palsy). I had no use of my right arm (including the hand). I recovered partial movement after I turned one and then went through some physical therapy on a small-scale. In the early 80s the process for helping or healing this birth injury didn’t exist. There wasn’t a set plan or protocol. When I was 1-2 a physical therapist would hold a crayon or marker in my hand and help me move it around the paper. I was also placed in a swim class for children born with cerebral palsy. Neither of these types of PT “fixed” the issue, but I loved the water and the art.

Although there is no more lingering nerve damage from the initial birth injury – permanent limitations were created by the sling my arm was kept in. My elbow and shoulder joints/muscles/tendons were greatly impacted by the sling during a critical growth stage. I can’t lift my arm directly above my head or straighten it fully, but I’ve always adapted and found ways to work around it. I’m mostly right-handed with drawing and painting (though I can switch to my left hand if I need to). I’m primarily left-handed with literally everything else. The early introduction to art might have been a key player in my lifelong love of creating things.

I picked up watercolor for the first time ever in January 2014. I don’t know why I connected with watercolor so quickly, but it stuck and I started selling my paintings that same year. I created Sharktopia in October 2014 and have been selling my art as prints, cards, and original paintings ever since. I also create eco-friendly paper stickers and other odds ‘n ends. Some of the exclusive items are reserved for my Patreon supporters (such as mini art prints, bookmarks, and postcards).

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

In 2014 I discovered the joy of watercolors. At that time I also learned that 100 MILLION sharks are killed every single year. This insanity is not sustainable and our Oceans are suffering greatly as a result. I was so shocked when I read about shark finning (and in-general shark fishing) that I started spreading awareness through my art. A lot of people believe sharks are mindless killers that hunt humans who swim in the ocean, but that’s incredibly far from the truth. 99% of the time you’ll swim next to a shark and never know it. Humans are not on the menu. Accidents do happen and our fragile human bodies sometimes don’t survive incidents with sharks – but it’s RARE. A grand total of 6-10 humans die each year from a shark incident. More than 46,000 people die in car accidents within the U.S. each year. My art helps alter the misconceptions surrounding sharks and aims to help people see how important sharks really are. Healthy oceans provide us with 70% of the air we breathe. No sharks = no healthy oceans. That’s not a future I want to experience, so I will always do my best to spread the awareness through my art.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Specifically with my art, I had to unlearn perfection. I had to learn to let go. I had to learn to put the cap on the pen, rinse the paintbrush, and call a painting finished even when something inside me was yelling, “But you can add more to this! It’s not done yet!” I’m not sure where that sentiment comes from – perhaps it has to do with how we’re taught to create art in school. I remember hearing a teacher say, “What else can you add? What more can you do?” I suppose that could stem from needing to encourage children to fill a page due to a class assignment. But, as an adult, I don’t need to fill the page. I don’t have any true requirements for the paper in front of me. I can simply enjoy the creation process and walk away whenever I feel like calling it ‘finished’. It’s not a perfect system. I still fight that urge to ‘add more’ – but it gets easier as the years go by. Letting go of those feelings will probably always be a work-in-progress, but that’s just part of the journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sharktopia.org
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/sharktopia
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/sharktopiaCC
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/sharktopia
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/sharktopiaorgcc
• Other: www.patreon.com/sharktopia https://sharktopia.tumblr.com