Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Catera Travis. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Catera, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
Whenever I talk about how I started off I always tell the story of the Pikachu drawing. At five years old I would plead for my uncle to make me a Pikachu drawing. I would do it non-stop because I was obsessed with Pokemon at the time. So anytime he came home from school I was rushing him with a pencil and paper asking him to draw it for me. At some point he got fed up and told me to try drawing it myself and for some reason it never crossed my mind to draw it myself. You know I was taken aback by the idea. So I went to my room and looked at my Pikachu plushie and started to draw it. Frustration aside it wasn’t half bad and I got this wave of satisfaction that I finally got the picture I wanted. I was elated that I could create the pictures I wanted by my own hand and ever since I have been creating. I praise my uncle for giving me that push and being the closest artist I look up to. That’s when I found I wanted to go on my artistic journey professionally.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Catera Travis, my artist name is CatTheeArtist. I am from Detroit, Michigan. I have been creating art since I was five years old. I started out as a traditional artist. During 2020 I gotten into Digital Art pretty heavily resulting in me doing it for 3 years. I mostly do commissions for portraits that is my main focus. But I also design tattoos and logos if requested.
The way I operate with clients I have them give me a detailed description of what they want and send references of what they may want. I do a few sketches combining the ideas for them so they get a sense of what I see for my vision and if it aligns with what they want. Then from there I change the sketch from their critiques. Once we get the desired the design I go forth with color and rendering.
Something that I feel sets me apart from other portrait artist I try to make portraits standout and not be something that is cookie cutter. I also take in the image of what the client provided and imagine what I think suits it be it color or theme. I try to get as much input from my clients to make sure they are satisfied with the end product.
My main focus in my art is mostly black people particularly black women. I feel as a black woman I wanted to make art that was near and dear to me and that black women deserve to see themselves represented. I want my art to convey the different feelings black women can feel and how we are more than just an “angry black woman”. I want black women to see my art and to be vulnerable with it. To feel they are seen and that they are beautiful in every way. The works fI presented are all about emotions in this series or how you feel when you see them.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
My first ever social media for my art was instagram. I started by adding people I knew, from then on I started interacting on large art accounts. I would follow art accounts with big followings and interact in the artist follow trains they did. This helped me to gain other artist as my followers and broaden my horizons on what kind of art was out there. Another way I seemed to have gotten followers was interacting on post in the comments. This in turn made people look at my page and follow. Another sure way to get followers is by using hashtags. I know now it might not do much but when instagram did use them it attracted a lot of my followers from what I felt my art was about. It was really helpful in finding an audience for my art.
I did this same model for both Twitter and TikTok and it seemed to work just fine. Making sure to get art Mutuals is a sure way to build up followers. I have had big art accounts repost my art to their audience which has been also helpful. On TikTok I mostly got followers from commenting before I even posted any of my art, Once I started posting consistently and doing stitches with big creators it really boosted my follower count. As long as you are consistent and posting your art no matter the state of it you will gain a following. But also make sure when doing this you are still happy with creating while building up your followers. Take breaks when needed and don’t pressured to post everyday if it isn’t doable for you.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
As an artist in her senior I wish I knew about the money set aside for Artist to do art showings/galleries. I learned a lot this year about free art residencies, Art councils, and grants for artist. This would have been helpful in 2020 when I was trying to purchase a tablet for digital Art. This would have made accessing my tools easier.
I wish I were able to have done a residency program one of the summers that I worked, I feel it could have helped me practice wise. It could helped me gain more skills and perfected the areas I know I lack in. Upon finding out there were some that were free, I didn’t know something like this was accessible to me. I always thought I had to pay for everything until you find these free opportunities. I just wish they were broadcasted more to small artist without having to go to college. 
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/Cattheeartist?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=dd13ab8d-108b-4f4f-bc8e-0859a3ce9b44
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/cattheeartist?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==