We were lucky to catch up with Caroline Kwas recently and have shared our conversation below.
Caroline , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
I had always dreamed of earning a full-time living from painting. When I was younger, I would carve away a few precious hours, or even minutes, to grab a paintbrush. I would long for the day when I didn’t have to put the brush down and go grade a stack of papers or create English lesson plans. Thankfully, over the past several years, my art has allowed me to leave behind the 9 to 5 world. It was a strange transition, as someone who always had at least one full-time job outside my home that paid weekly or bi-weekly. Casting aside that security brought a lot of anxiety. I have had to overcome the notion instilled in me by a less-than-supportive family that art was not to be taken seriously: a nice hobby but certainly not a career path. To this day, I fight those voices, and fortunately, they have faded. But the idea of “what’s your real job” did trip me up quite a bit in the beginning.
Caroline , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am an oil painter and my work is best described as Contemporary Southwest. I started out as a photorealistic painter, but after a number of years I began to get bored and yearned for more emotional expression in painting. A period of experimentation followed, along with a sabbatical where I studied with a mentor who taught me how to forge the vision I had been seeking. Today, I call it The Desert Reimagined, and although clearly representational, I imbue my canvas worlds with vibrant color and geometric shapes-a hearkening back to my days as a math and science major.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Pursuing art as my career has not been an easy journey. I come, oddly enough, from a family that had zero art on the walls. They thought I’d head into medicine or science. At 19, my father kicked me out of the house when he learned I changed my major from biochemistry to fine art. I think I’ve always been resilient and a bit stubborn, but these early battles with family for autonomy prepared me for the arduous journey a career in fine art can be. I went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts from FIT in New York. For years, I worked at jobs in restaurant, construction and education while painting in my off hours.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I had to unlearn perfectionism. Making something more painful was not making it better; I don’t have to reinvent the wheel with every painting. I remind myself that many artists paint one subject matter for years because it’s about exploration of a personal vision.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.carolinekwas.com
- Instagram: @carolinekwasart
- Other: https://www.anticus.com/artist/caroline-kwas