Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Katsiaryna Sharai. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Katsiaryna, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I’m in love with the creative process! From the moment of my creative activity (about ten years), my creative activity has changed very dramatically. Transformed and developed, flowed from one type of creativity to another. But it always remained a creative process, in which I started from the question to myself: What exactly do I want? In life in general, in my plans for the future in life. And in creativity – what direction do I want to do now and how do I imagine the implementation of this plan and full-fledged earnings on it? The fact is that I have been earning by handicraft and artistic activity for 10 years. I have an offline workshop where I sell my physical handicrafts and art objects. But in 2020, during the emergence of Covid-19, my workshop closed, and I was left without income for a while. At that moment, I was looking for a way out of the situation, just how to earn money for a living and for a mortgage. And I found that offline trading limits me very much. Restricts both in the circumstances that have developed due to the pandemic, and in terms of freedom (freedom of movement and travel). And at that moment I had a reassessment of values, views on life and the direction of my work. I first tried selling my physical handicrafts online. But soon this idea was abandoned.
I realized that I want to make good money doing what I love and at the same time not be physically tied to one geographic point, I really want to travel the world freely!
And I became interested in the idea of making my work more modern, in demand and digital. It is very important for me to work with physical materials. After all, my work is also tactile sensations, which are very important to me. Therefore, I excluded creative work only for a PC or a tablet for myself. And then watercolor came to my rescue! It suits my creative skills, art education, request for physical interaction with the material! But since I still decided to sell the work in digital form, part (only part) of the work remained on the PC!
And of course, like everything else, things don’t go smoothly. There are successes. There are failures and stagnation. And often at such moments I think about how people go to regular work. Day after day. Which of them manifests himself there as much as he wants? Could I show myself there? And if she did, how to live according to the schedule from vacation to vacation? Answering these questions to myself, I understand: yes, regular work gives stability. Planned and agreed in advance earnings. But! She takes freedom! Deprives the life that I want for myself – the opportunity to travel! I am 37 years old. I understand that all these years, one can say half of my life, were spent on understanding “how exactly I want to live the rest of the second half of my life”. So what kind of stability that a regular job can give me can we talk about if it crosses out the very right of freedom of my choice?
That’s why the question of normal work is not for me. And my answer to it is: it’s all good, but for the one for whom it suits.
Yes, I have not yet come to the desired lifestyle and a full-fledged income in watercolor illustration. But I know exactly what I want! And this is already half way! And I will develop in this direction even when I meet difficulties and obstacles. I am ready to work, to redo again and again, to try not to go astray after failures.
(This is automatic translate version. If do you need clarification please ask me).

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 KatyuSha Ray. More precisely, it’s my creative pseudonym. I have studied fine arts since the age of ten. Studied in the direction of painting. Having an art education, in a certain life period, I tried to get away from creativity. But it did not work out, and I nevertheless returned to the creative direction, as to the main type of activity and earnings. For the past 10 years, I have been making money with creativity. But during this time the direction of activity has changed a lot. The goal, concept, materials of the work and the vision of my personal development as an artist were changing. Now I’m into digital watercolor illustration. The goal that I am pursuing here is to combine traditional art (work with physical materials) and modern demands on the artist as much as possible. It is for this reason that my art has gone digital while remaining real and tangible. My creative mission in this direction is to create and show the viewer previously unseen fantastic worlds! It is from here that my fantasy creatures, magical folk and unusual houses with cute inhabitants originate. I see it all in my dreams, in my subconscious, sometimes I come up with something while I draw sketches.
In watercolor illustration, you can prove yourself as a good illustrator, working out a specific request from the public. But there is no magic in this! I work with the request in my exclusive key, pass it (request) through my magical worlds! You ask: how does it work?! And I will answer, for example – everyone loves butterflies! And you will find a great variety of realistic, cute illustrations and clip art with this query “butterfly”! But what will you find in my world? You will see how the butterfly dances in ballet pointe shoes! How another butterfly wrapped itself in its motley cloak from the wind! And the dragonfly dressed up in an unusual oriental outfit! And Mrs. Spider is lurking nearby and spinning threads!
So what I mentioned is only part of the magic! It is much wider, and I continue to learn and embody it in my creative works! And you can apply the created magic as design elements already in your creative work!
So who is my art for?
For you! If you are a magical creator for cards and invitation maker, children’s book maker, print designer, personalized gift maker and holiday designer, fabric designer using patterns or single PNG elements, scrapbook lover, etc. If you are a designer and crafter working with watercolor clip art and with a request for exclusivity, then you absolutely miraculously got into the world you need!
(This is automatic translate version. If do you need clarification please ask me).

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I can’t get it right the first time! As well as from the second, from the third! All that I have, what I have achieved, is a combination of several obstacles, failures and one successful time, thanks to my perseverance. Therefore, if you are guided by the principle: I will try, it will work out – I will continue, if it does not work out – I will not continue … This is a bad idea! I will say this. Get it – go ahead and raise the bar. It will not work – all the more so, continue and raise the bar. Strive for a difficult goal, only it will make you stronger and happier!
I have excellent, successful work! But these works were preceded by failures, ignorance and misunderstanding. The reason that wanted to tell me “you can’t do it”. And only my answer to this very reason “I did not succeed today, but this does not mean that I will not succeed tomorrow” changed the situation from failure to success!
Any success is a combination of the number of approaches, your stubbornness and your flexibility!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Developed imagination! It is this type of activity that strongly développés the visual imagination! I can instantly visualize anything I hear, read, or think of. Also, I visualize on a subconscious level. When you don’t think about anything, and suddenly you see something unusual! It’s like you’re suddenly transported into another world. Such an imagination (to create something like this modern visual technology strives) develops by itself because of artistic activity! Here such a vicious circle turns out: I develop the skills of the artist, these skills develop my imagination; imagination shows me a lot of new and unusual and thanks to this I continue to create! After all, I do not say “I came up with”, no. I say: “I saw!”. And it is true.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/paper_color_design
• Other: https://designbundles.net/charm-watercolor-art