We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Natasha Rubinetti-Kul a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Natasha, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I’m still taking my biggest risk! I quit my job in the middle of 2022 to pursue painting pet portraits full time! These paintings are considered a luxury item and not something that someone is in absolute dire need of so taking the leap and going from working with a steady job to doing this was very difficult. I have a wonderful support group consisting of my partner, family, friends, and past coworkers. All of these people were rooting for me to get out there with my talent and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without each and every one of them.

Some days it’s really hard. The work doesn’t always come steadily. It’s more like waves, but I plan to get to a point where I will be more comfortable with it or maybe I’ll get lucky and I’ll start to have a steadier flow.

The risk I’m about to take is to start trying to get myself more out there on social media. I’ve tried certain platforms but so many of them are either dying or not what works best for artists. So now it’s time to learn more about marketing!

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

I create realistic pet portraits with acrylic paint on canvas. All someone needs is a decent photo or two of an animal and from there I communicate with the client about what they are envisioning. We chat about colors, sizes, and anything extra they might want to add. The possibilities are endless! The animals doesn’t even need to be a cat or a dog. Any animal is welcome!

I got into the industry because it is something that I’ve done since I was young. I loved to do anything that involved art. My whole life I would draw people and animals and I always wanted to be able to make that my career however I never thought that I’d be able to make a living off of it. I went to college for film and animation at the Kansas City art institute and I learned what i didn’t want to do in life. I wanted to do more physical art and less on the computer work. I moved to New York and created puppets for an unpaid apprenticeship. It didn’t really lead anywhere afterwards so I moved back home and focused on my fiancé and my family and kinda just fell away from art for a little bit. I started working in a field where I sold sewing machines and I started to get more into thread painting and making art quilts. It was going really well and I had a lot of opportunities to start teaching and meeting a lot of different people showing my art and then Covid hit.

When Covid hit I stopped making art again and it hurt to even look at my sewing machine let alone sell them at work. So I left that job after a few years and started working as a sales person in jewelry. This job helped me tremendously in understanding how to sell myself as ab artist as well as selling the product. It helped my confidence grow tremendously.

I never wanted to be a freelancer. I don’t like the idea that I won’t have a steady paycheck. In December of 2021 I painted two pet portraits as a thank you to some friends of mine who helped me fix my car. As a thank you I painted their cats. They absolutely loved them and I decided I wanted to do some of my own animals. I made a collection of six animals that are either with me now or I have had in the past and have passed away. I started posting on social media to show what I painted and immediately I ended up with several commissions. This turned into 20 commishins and soon it ended up being up to 50 commissions. In the middle of 2022 I quit my job to be a full time pet portrait painter. These last several months have been wonderful being able to be home doing what I love. Its also been pretty hard. I’m still trying to figure out how to market myself properly. It’s been a journey and it’s one that I plan to continue. I love doing what I do and if I can continue to just paint for the rest of my life I will feel fulfilled.

My favorite part of the job is delivering portraits to the client. I’m able to do a lot more with painting than a lot of the companies that might just use photoshop to put pictures together. I had a customer who wanted a Victorian pet portrait but the photos that they had of this pet were not great quality. The pet portrait website that my client went to pretty much puts a photoshoped head onto a photoshopped body which is fine, but the company wouldn’t accept the photos that the client had because they were not in focus enough. Some people don’t have the option to take more photos of a pet especially if they have already passed. As a creative who has always had a fascination with detail I can take a couple of photos, look at them and fill in any blanks that might not be there. I have had to paint animals that passed away over 30 years ago and the client only has physical tiny 2 inch photographs of them that are not in focus. I have also had to take in photos of animals where the dog might not look very happy or it looks kind of sick and they ask “Hey can you make this look like he’s happy”. I can do a lot and it’s so heartwarming to see the client when they finally get the finished product. It is so fulfilling to see something that I helped create bringing out such emotion In someone.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn a few things from college for sure. The first thing is it is ok to make a living painting pet portraits. You don’t have to be some big shot making abstract art for a high end gallery to be “worthy”. College made me feel like I had to create art that had a huge grasping at straws meaning behind it and my art suffered for it all because I wanted a good grade. Sometimes the meaning of something is not several paragraphs long, and that’s ok. Sometimes it is just “I made this because it is beautiful” Or “I made this because it is important to someone”.

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?

I was told at a young age that I shouldn’t be an artist. That I would not be able to make enough money as an artist so I tried really hard to find an art job that would pay me the money that I need. I went to college. I did the thing and I still didn’t find it. It was and still is hard. I am still on my journey but I think I’ve finally found where I meant to go and I know my path forward. That doesn’t mean that it is impossible. We need to continue to support the arts because a lot comes from creative people. Creatives are everywhere. Creatives make the movie that you watch, the jewelry that you wear and the home décor that you buy. Everywhere that you look in your home, in a store, and anywhere else is something that has been created by somebody. Art is a job and it is something that is necessary.

Contact Info:

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• Other: Email – [email protected]