We recently connected with Kathleen Jones and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kathleen, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
The biggest risk I have taken is a blind leap of faith into full time art before I had any representation or presence in the art world. I was teaching high school and painting in the evenings and posting on Instagram, but that was the extent of my art career. I sold a few pieces through social media here and there, but I was very much a novice. I applied to Anne Irwin Fine Art’s Emerging Artist show, but I wasn’t sure if I would be accepted. I had to make a decision whether or not to renew my teaching contract for the following year before I knew if I had even been accepted. I took a risk and did not renew my teaching contract, and just had faith that this was my path and things would work out. At the end of the school year I found out I had been accepted into the show. I submitted four paintings, and they all sold before the opening, which prompted Anne Irwin to keep me as a represented artist. The rest is history!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m a painter based in Macon, GA that specializes in still life paintings that are a colorful mix of tradition and abstraction. I have a BFA in Art Education and I spent four years teaching high school art before pursuing painting full time. I have spent the last six years defining my style that I feel perfectly represents me- skating the line between traditional and a little bit weird. This style of painting has a lot of familiar elements like ginger jars and fruit, but it also has a distinct quality that sets it apart from other still life paintings you have seen. I love incorporating personal touches from my life into my pieces, like my grandmother’s vase or the wallpaper pattern from my best friend’s house, and I find that collectors often connect to those details as well. There is nothing more exciting to me that embedding a story of a person or family into a piece in a way that may not be apparent to anyone but them. I love a secret sentimental detail. I show with galleries in Atlanta, Charleston, and Richmond and work with clients all over the country one on one to create custom commissioned pieces.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
While being an artist requires a lot of moving and adapting, I feel my biggest pivot is happening right now. I started my career in late 2018, and I experienced a lot of success early on, some of which was because of COVID. When people were quarantined in 2020, the art market was booming and so it gave me a skewed sense of how things would be moving forward. Now that we are four years removed from the pandemic, people are spending their money differently, and the art market is slower than it was when I started. I have had to re-examine how I want to approach supporting myself as an artist and make decisions that I probably wouldn’t have made before. I used to have these notions that if I sold prints or discounted my work that I was devaluing my brand, but now I see it as trying to meet my collectors where they are. Painting is my passion and I want to do whatever I can to continue doing it professionally. I think of it as being resilient and surfing the waves because there is no ride I would rather be on.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Social media is an interesting topic for me, because I both appreciate it for the tool that it is, and find it incredibly exhausting. I have organically grown my following very slowly over the last several years, and many people would probably argue that I don’t have a strong following (I’m still chilling just under 9K followers.) But I think that it’s about quality, not quantity. For me, the focus is more on actually connecting with people and being my genuine self and less on following trends and going viral. Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with going viral and using Instagram to its full potential- it just never felt authentic to me so it wasn’t relatable when I did it. I think the key is to approach social media in the way that feels most natural to you, and your perfect audience will gravitate to that. If it feels right to be on TikTok and do the viral dances, then you absolutely should do that, and it will resonate with people because it’s authentic. If that feels forced to you, it will read as awkward and forced, and people will pick up on that. You just have to be yourself and show up consistently as yourself and your people will find you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kath.studio
- Instagram: @_kathjones
