We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kaitlyn Blade a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kaitlyn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?
I actually wonder about having a “regular job” more often than people might think. A common misconception with being a full time artist is that you get so much “freedom and time to do whatever you want”. This might be somewhat true, but being a creative has its hardships too. The times I have this thought the most, are when things in my life and business feel uncertain, which happens about 90% of the time. When you’re an artist, you don’t just make the art. You’re also the marketer, salesperson, social media editor/manager, accountant, teacher, and creative director. Most times it’s empowering to be your own boss, and other times, it’s exhausting!
I have spent years learning how to do all of it myself, through trial and error, and inspiration from other full time creators online. I very often think about what it would be like to have a traditional job, where I could easily separate my work life and personal life/leave “work at work”. To know exactly where my next paycheck would come from and how much. To not constantly wonder if I should be creating more, posting more, networking more, researching the right things, or launching something new. To just be more certain. But after thinking about that concept for so long, I realized I was just wishing for the structure you get from a “regular job”. I just had to figure out a different way to find that structure.
Whenever I imagine walking away from art completely or giving up on finding that stability as a full time artist, I feel a sense of loss. Creating isn’t just a job, it never even started as that. It’s how I express myself and process the world. It’s how I’ve gotten through some of the most challenging and transformative periods of my life. Being an artist can be scary, unpredictable, and deeply vulnerable. But it’s also the most meaningful and powerful thing I’ve ever done, and I wouldn’t change it for anything. The uncertainty is the price of getting to spend my life creating things that feel real and true to 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 background and context?
My name is Kaitlyn Blade, and I’m a visual artist and creator. I specialize in oil painting, making videos online that show my life and artistic process, and teaching people how to oil paint. I have always felt it in me to create from a very young age. In high school, I started acrylic painting and sold my first pieces, and I genuinely loved to do it. Before college, I was painting more than ever, and still didn’t know that being a full time artist was even a possibility. Not because my parents weren’t supportive, they always have rooted for me and my dreams, but because that type of career wasn’t talked about often. I didn’t have many people to reference for what that lifestyle looked like and I was often being told that being an artist wasn’t very sustainable or logical (this was in 2017, before people were being paid just to make videos of their life, by the way). I began my college journey thinking I needed to be a computer scientist to make a living in the world, just because I “kind of liked math”. However, on the day of freshman orientation at Kennesaw State University, alone, surrounded by thousands of people I didn’t know, for what seemed like the first time ever… I felt in me to choose a different path for myself, the right path. So I switched my major from Computer Science to Fine Arts, and the rest is history. I met so many great professors and peers, learned a ton about art and the art world in various ways, and fell in love with oil painting.
In 2020, I started making videos of my life and my art, and got a lot of eyes on my work and personality. After graduating with my Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree in December 2021, I truly became a full time creator in all ways, adjusting to life without school and the structure that comes with it. Painting became something much deeper than a hobby for me, it became a way of understanding myself and processing life. Some of the most difficult moments I’ve experienced have found their way into my work, through storytelling, self portraits and most of all, human emotion.
I now own KBladeArt, a business that encompasses everything that I do and provide. Today, I’m best known for my expressive oil paintings, self portraits, figurative work, and my octopus paintings. The octopus has become a reoccurring symbol in my work, representing resilience, adaptability, vulnerability, and strength all at once. Those themes are at the core of almost everything I create. Alongside my original art, I create commissioned artwork for collectors who want a meaningful, one of a kind piece. I have done commission work for years now, painting portraits of loved ones, personal concepts, or pieces inspired by significant life experiences. Throughout all of my work, my goal is always to create art that feels deeply personal and emotionally honest, to connect with the viewer with little to no words. Or in general, art that just looks really cool and is fun to make. What sets my work apart is my interest in capturing a feeling. I want people to look at a painting and feel seen, understood, or connected to something visual and/or that might be hard to talk about. Being emotionally aware and real about the emotions we all feel as humans is something very important to me and prevalent in my work. Authenticity always comes first.
I also post videos/vlogs of my art process, behind the scenes, and the artist lifestyle, managing anxiety and the hardships of life, in both short and long form content. Finding a way to balance the creation of art and videos is a job within itself!
More recently, I’ve combined all of my skills and knowledge with painting and editing, and expanded into teaching! Through my online course and community, I help artists develop their technical painting skills while also encouraging them to create work that feels authentic to who they are.
The thing I’m most proud of isn’t a single painting or project. It’s the career and community I’ve built, with not much of a guide, just from experiences and “doing while scared”. In a world where artists are often encouraged to chase trends or fit into a specific box, I’ve continued creating the work that feels most meaningful to me, even when it wasn’t the easiest path.
At the end of the day, I don’t just want to create beautiful paintings. I want to create work that helps people feel something and know it’s okay to feel that something.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
When I first started my art journey, I had no idea what was possible as a creative. Now, as times change, society is realizing anyone can do and create anything and make a living doing it too. The most rewarding aspect of what I do is building a business and community that’s one of kind, on my own, that connects deeply with so many people.
What surprised me the most when I started to make emotional work, was how often those pieces connected with others. I’ll paint something inspired by my own struggles, growth, or perspective, and someone will reach out and tell me, “That’s exactly how I’ve felt, but I never knew how to put it into words.” All without me having to explain my concept behind a piece. I think that is so powerful and has been my goal since college.
Art, in all forms, has a unique ability to communicate things that are difficult through conversation alone. A painting can capture grief, resilience, hope, vulnerability, or transformation in a way that people immediately recognize, even if their life story is completely different from mine. Of course, there are practical rewards that come with building a creative career, but for me, the most fulfilling part has always been connection. Every painting starts as something personal, but the best feeling is when it stops belonging only to me and begins resonating with someone else.
I truly believe that at the core of a human is creativity and emotion. And once you tap into both, you are truly free. So the fact that I have had so many people come to me to express that I have helped them or related to them through my creativity, is something that is the most rewarding. It’s a reminder that I’m doing the right thing, and to never stop creating.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Stop using/promoting AI as a replacememnt for thinking for yourself, get off that phone, and support living, real artists!
Having this much access to large amounts of useless and often negative information so quickly is killing our brains. Especially the brains of creative people. Humans are not meant to have so many things thinking and doing for them. AI has taken the concept of ‘not knowing’ away from us. We can now know the answer to almost everything, have entire game-plans for creative ideas, have (ugly) flyers, images, “art”, movies, and commercials, generated from one prompt, all within seconds, and without thinking or indulging in the creative process. It’s sad and emotion-less.
What’s that saying, “believe and trust in the process, not the result”? A lot of people are using AI so much that it’s shifting their brains to only focus on result rather than the beauty of the process, just because it’s convenient and easy to get an answer now. Or even to make really bad art. And that’s why I will always take pride in being an artist, because I will always be able to make physical art with my brain and my hands, that feels and looks human. Keep human art alive, by hiring real artists to make something for you. Don’t choose the easy way out. Be aware of what the internet and AI is doing to your critical thinking skills and go outside (we might need another article and interview when it comes to AI and the internet nowadays, I have a lot to say).
We can also support artists by recognizing that creativity is valuable work. Art is a part of almost every aspect of our lives, the music we listen to, the movies we watch, the murals in our cities, and the designs on the products we buy. Yet artists are often expected to create for exposure, work for less than their value, or justify why their work deserves financial support.
Supporting artists doesn’t always have to be by making huge purchases either. It can also be buying directly from artists when you’re able, sharing their work, attending local art events, taking classes, commissioning artwork, or simply taking the time to engage with what they’ve created. Those actions can have a much bigger impact than people realize.
I also think we need to encourage creativity earlier and more consistently. Art education is often treated as optional or extra-curricular, but creativity teaches problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, and self-expression. Even for people who never pursue art professionally, those skills carry into every area of life.
A thriving creative ecosystem happens when artists feel empowered to use their own voice instead of chasing trends or algorithms. Some of the most meaningful work comes from artists who are given the space to experiment, take risks, and create something authentic and from real life, not always inspired by something online.
As both an artist and new educator, I’ve seen firsthand how transformative creativity can be. When people feel safe enough to create, they often discover parts of themselves they didn’t know existed. Supporting artists ultimately means supporting culture, human connection, and the stories and processes that help us better understand one another.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kbladeart.square.site
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kbladeart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61576845850503
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlyn-blade-963091196/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/kblvde
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kaitlynblade
- Other: Online Painting Course: https://www.skool.com/kbladeart-school-5384
Other Links: https://linktr.ee/kbladeart
Image Credits
8th Image: Christopher Paul (NutoMora)