We were lucky to catch up with Catalina Vasquez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Catalina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

I was working in a small business with a group of friends, and I didn’t put boundaries with the number of requests I was accepting; plus, I was involved in like five other projects, thinking I could do everything simultaneously. I was stressed and alarmed at one point, so I prioritized my mental health.

I was a kind of “people pleaser,” thinking that I could do so every freelance I accepted, saying yes to every person that approached me with an “excellent” opportunity for my career. Still, I started feeling burned out, to the point that I didn’t want to wake up in the morning: Thinking of a neverending list of unfinished tasks and clients waiting for a response.

I started thinking, what’s the point of this? Why I’m sacrificing my mental health and quality time to spend on other stuff rather than work?

I was on the very dark side and realized my mental and physical health was deteriorating.

So I decided to make a decision. To speak honestly about my expectations on work first with myself and the others.

I ended contracts and depurated nonrelevant tasks. And I finally learned how to say no to freelance work I needed to decide to take for the first time in my professional career. It felt liberating.

I was free from the chains I created for myself by accepting work after work.

I felt relieved, and the pain in my chest and the sleepless nights were over; my anxiety changed dramatically, which was a crucial lesson that I learned from this process.

No work is more important than your mental health, visibility, or a post on Instagram to feel validated.

For me, the most important thing was to realize that beyond work, I’m a complete human being, perfect with my imperfections, and that I don’t need the pressure of posing as the ideal polished professional anymore.

Nowadays, I’m more focused on creating art and working with clients aligned with these values, and I understand that a good piece of work takes time.

I’m not rushing anymore.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Kathiuska is a universe of shapes, colors, and objects derived from the creative process of Catalina Vasquez, an artist and designer from Medellín, Colombia. After several years of working as a multidisciplinary creative by developing my works and content for third parties, I embarked on a journey towards materializing objects, clothing, and digital pieces that seek to take my imagination to other spaces, bodies, and experiences.

Personal and intimate, yet open and diverse, my work blends narratives and graphic languages ​​into a universe of themes, thus bringing to life intimate feelings, people and relationships, places and travel, personal and collective memories, and humanitarian causes.
Various possibilities keep me active in personal and commissioned work in multiple formats, including animation projects and independent documentaries, illustrated books, comics and magazine articles, advertising, applications, educational projects, museography, textile processes, film, and fashion.

I started as a self-taught illustrator, focusing on the business side, but now I am shifting to more artistic and personal work.
The things I am more proud of now about my work are the connections I have developed with people thanks to the images I create. For me, it is very rewarding to see when someone approaches me saying that they identified and felt the vibe of an illustration, that a single image could provoke a lot of thoughts, and see how an idea that you have resonates in so many different ways to a person.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Sometimes people take for granted a lot of the unseen work it takes to be and work in the creative field. People are used to always seeing the final result, but the process always involves a lot of experimentation, iteration, and even frustration. Finding an idea, shaping it, and transforming it into a product/deliverable/artwork is always a complex process. People outside sometimes don’t appreciate the effort in the way it should.

This disconnection is part of an educational culture where art and crafts are not the priority in knowledge production and a starting point to connect, analyze and understand the world.

It should be different, of course, as every day, many creatives struggle with bosses, workmates, clients, and buyers that need to be more familiar with and appreciative of the time and effort we put into the work that we deliver.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Recently, I read the book The Almanak of Naval Ravikant: a guide to wealth and happiness. A compilation of the best tweets by Naval on Twitter and extracts from his interviews and blog post. The book is a piece of writing on two subjects that may seem antithetical at first sight, building wealth and living a meaningful life, but they have a lot in common. Naval offers its readers advice on building wealth and, more importantly, using it correctly.

Contrary to popular belief, we don’t need much to be happy. Just look at children playing. They don’t stress much about the future or the past but rather explore the present moment and immerse themselves in whatever they’re doing at that time. Pausing our human ability to judge, we’ll find new ways of becoming happier.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://kathiuska.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/_kathiuska_
• Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/kathiuska
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/_kathiuska_
• Other: http://behance.net/kathiuska

Image Credits
photo by: Valentina Hernández Vélez