We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kate Cowan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kate thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. 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?

While I was getting my BFA in Visual Arts Studies, people in and around my life would always ask me “What job are you going to do with that?” This question rang in the back of my mind for the entirety of my schooling. I loved my studio classes the most, but I was also dabbling in art history and art education courses. I was also on track to receive my K-12 teaching certificate, as well as my degree, because the thought of not making any money right out of college haunted me completely. I knew I would have a job in education, but I also knew I did not want to do that forever. I thought it would buy me some time at least.
For the last two years, I was an art teacher at a public middle school. I had a secure job, one with regular paychecks, benefits, insurance, and I knew what I was doing. The problem was, though, that I did not go into education as a teacher. I went into it as an artist who wanted to share their passion with others. There is a difference, I believe.
As an artist, I thrive in situations where I can put my creativity to good use everyday. These days, public school education is not the place for that. I quickly began to feel drained, both physically and mentally. Each day, I would come home from work and go to sleep immediately, and that was on days that I did not have to stay late grinding away with grading or paperwork. I was unable to live a life at the same time, and I correlated that with just being a teacher. Teaching is one of the hardest jobs out there, but I began to look around at my colleagues and I realized most of them did not feel the same way as me. Sure, there is such thing as burnout, but this was different.
It took me two years, and upon reflection and lots of therapy bills, to come to the conclusion that I was not living out my purpose. I was exhausted because I was going against the grain. It was like swimming upstream everyday. I ignored the signs, and then one day I woke up and just knew I could not sustain this way of life. I needed to make a change. So I quit, and have been exploring the life of an artist since. I do not know where it will lead me, and I do not have the security I once had at all. But I am finally able to breathe.

Kate, 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?

As an artist, I am asked this question a lot. For lack of a better answer, I got into art because I was unable to express myself in my life. I sort of happened upon sculpting. When I was younger, I believed that to be an artist meant that you had to be a painter. But when I found my hands on materials such as clay, plaster and textiles, I felt for the first time in my life that my brain was processing my emotions. Sculpting gave me the ability to lose control in a life where I felt rigid because words and other forms of communication escaped me.
In my work, I construct pieces with combinations of mediums that begin in a fluid or moving state and eventually turn into a solid structure. I seek for each piece to embody a responsive, physical reaction to the ever changing experience of the soul. Emotions form through my work. I often do not know what the piece is about until forming the base of the sculpture, then I can paint from the complex feelings it evokes. There is a spiritual relationship between my hands and the material. It is a sort of role play. Abandoning control over the medium initially, I then am able to figure out what it wants to be. It emerges from me. I am what I am doing. In giving a material its own quality of life, that connection opens through the touch of my hands. It is all a conscious yet unconscious state of being.
I am very interested in the way a material can have duality. It can be one thing, but also another at the same time. Whatever the medium, my hands like to make a sculpture to appear as something it is not. For example, I create a work that looks malleable or soft like fabric, but is constructed from something more concrete – like clay or plaster. To me, it represents the duality of human nature.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I am still in the process of building a larger social media presence, but my advice is just this: post. Find your niche. Whatever art you create, make sure it has the qualities of yourself. Your art is you, so post it like you would your personal page. Post process videos, post photo dumps, post the final product, post it all! Give your art it’s own accounts on Instagram, Tiktok, etc. and post. Let the algorithm do its thing while you do yours.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My mission is to make art for a living, whatever that looks like. Maybe it is being surrounded by the art world, maybe it is working with a gallery, or maybe it is selling pieces. I do not know. I think for me, and hopefully all artists, there is no particular goal or mission that prompts you to create. You create because you have to. Whatever comes along on the way is extra. Your mission is that it is your passion. You have to create to live because your art is life. I do not separate the two. I am my art. My art is me, and I live.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.katecowanart.com
• Instagram: @katecowan_art / @katecowanphotography