We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katie Comtois. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katie below.

Katie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Success is something I believe is subjective. It can look different from person to person depending on what they’d like for their future, but I feel there are a mixture of factors it takes to be successful. Some of the biggest things I have learned that have helped me grow as an artist are to let go of the fear of failure and put myself out there. I also learned that it’s okay to change direction when the current path starts to feel off. My whole life I wanted a career that entailed some type of drawing or painting. After getting my associates in fine art, I decided to take the risk and apply to art school and was ecstatic when I was accepted. It was my ‘dream school’ and I had wanted to go there for years.
I moved two hours from home, completely on my own for the first time at 23, and had to take out hefty loans because it wasn’t something I could afford. I ended up dropping out during my second semester because the work I had to do made me fall out of love with illustrating, and I felt I wouldn’t be able to afford to continue attending for something I had lost passion for. My time there felt very lonely and I became homesick.
At first this really felt like a failure, but two years later I feel it was the best decision I could have made. It taught me a lot about myself and that maybe drawing was no longer for me if it didn’t make me feel good. Now I mostly make jewelry and other trinkets, and my illustrative side will come out once in while when I sculpt fun decor with clay. I’ve also used a lot of the tools I’ve learned from school to put together designs and also market myself the best I can.
I’ve found that consistency and persistence have helped me get my work out there more as well. It’s important to stay mindful and in the moment and to not get too caught up on the future.
Although I’m not quite where I’d like to be yet, I consider myself successful because I enjoy what I do and I find joy in little things everyday.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Growing up I was very in tune with my creative side and always wanted some kind of career in art. Most of the art I’ve done throughout my life has been drawing and painting, so for a long time I took a path towards becoming a graphic designer or an illustrator. After so many years in school taking this route, I began to fall out of love with it and couldn’t get myself to create much at all. The work in my classes became tougher as I lost motivation for the craft. I ended up dropping out of art school and had a bit of an existential crisis as I learned to navigate being an adult on top of trying to find myself. I had put so much of my identity into illustration that I had felt kind of lost at this point.
In trying to find myself I started connecting with different people and experiencing new things. Some good, some bad. This was also in attempt to distract myself from a lot of chaos in my personal life at the time, but it’s when I started to dabble with making jewelry.
It started with making simple earrings and attending a craft show with a friend here and there just for fun. I never expected to come as far as I have with it, but I ended up really enjoying the tinkering and found it to be a healthy way to clear my head. Switching gears also helped me find joy in drawing again. Although I don’t draw often, I feel more inspired to now that it is more of a hobby than a job.
There is a lot of intention behind the things I create now. I love to use a lot of color and different shapes to help evoke feelings of nostalgia or awe. My inspiration comes from things I come across in everyday life that spark childlike wonder inside of me.
Wether that be a song lyric or a pretty flower, if it makes me feel something I’ll log it in my brain for a future creation.
Doing this has made me able to come up with things that are unique, and hold a lot of meaning to me. My favorite compliment I get on my art is when people tell me they’ve never seen something like it before.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the biggest things I’ve had to unlearn in order to stay focused is people pleasing. I have been a people pleaser up until roughly 6 months ago and it drained me for a long time. It feels nice to do nice things for people, but spreading myself thin wasn’t good for my self esteem.
There isn’t one specific instance that taught me the importance of boundaries more than it has been an amalgamation of life experiences, but I’ve been through a lot of loss in the past year in a half that has shown me the importance of keeping peace within myself and how doing so made me a kinder person.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

I started out selling my creations through messages on social media and then eventually put together my own site. I wanted to make my own site rather than use Etsy because I wanted to make it more personal and design it to fit my brand. It was more challenging than setting up an Etsy store, but my online shop is something I am quite proud of.
However, having my own website means people have to know about it in order to find it, unlike on Etsy where my products could be recommended to new people. This isn’t too much of a concern for me personally as I post my art on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok to help grow my audience, and my shop is linked through them. I’ve been able to consistently grow my audience on other platforms which brings the traffic to my site while also getting my art out there in many different ways.

Contact Info:

• Website: katiebugkeepsakes.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/katiebugkeepsakes
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090720443389&mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Other: www.tiktok.com/@katiebugkeepsakes

Image Credits
Katie Comtois