We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Katie Wells a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Katie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
I painted 100 watercolor post cards and gave (most of) them away.
It started as a half baked idea for my social media page and became something entirely different: a meditation in grit, perseverance, courage, and gratitude. It outgrew the little boxes of my phone and became my gateway to the souls of the wildernesses and the people around me.
First, the backstory.
In 2016 I was backpacking around New Zealand in my insufferable 20’s with my boyfriend, now husband, Nelson (not insufferable, actually quite wonderful). We were almost broke and I – like I do anytime I’m not working my ass off like a happy cog in a corporate machine – felt like I was drifting. Like a lot of people in the 2010’s I was influenced by Instagram’s idealistic portrayal of travel as being transformative and freeing. In some ways it was, but in other ways it was filled with uncertainty and loneliness. I had quit my job to “travel the world” and – perhaps to no one’s surprise – it was hard. It was too big and too vague a goal to ever be truly fulfillable. Instead of feeling super grateful for all the cool stuff I was seeing, I was having a low moment sitting under a tarp in the rain eating cold beans because my propane stove quit and feeling sorry for myself. That day was like a low budget version of “Triangle Of Sadness” – all the privilege but with no pirates and mono instead of food poisoning.
Extended travel is weird. You have these intense connections with people and then they’re gone. All the people and memories started to run through my mind like sand through my fingers. I wanted a way to connect with the people I was meeting and to try to tie a thread through all these very different experiences I was having. In December 2016 I walked into an art supply shop in Invercargill on a rainy day and saw this pack of watercolor post cards. I ended up buying the whole supply in the shop: 100 cards in all. I decided to give myself a quest: I was going to fill them all with paintings of the places I was seeing and give them away in a sort of improvised art pilgrimage I called #paintedpost. With the wisdom of old age I wish I had just called it “Painted Post,” but this was the 2010’s and Instagram was still #god.
I started handing out and mailing these cards to people who helped us out. There was the family in Tasmania who picked us up when we got caught in pouring rain trying to hitchhike to Cradle Mountain National Park and generously invited us to stay on their farm for almost a week. There was the musician and his wife in New Zealand who we met at a local dance hall who spontaneously invited us home to dinner. There was the mother in Japan who offered to bring us with her and her kids to a winter ceremony at a local Shinto shrine – and so many more. I wasn’t trying to seek out these experiences but somehow they kept coming. It’s almost as though the more I created, the more I came to value and appreciate the experiences I was having. The more gratitude I felt, the more open I felt to others and the better I connected with them.
Each card was a timestamp: a place, a country, a time, a feeling – and a recipient. A real person somewhere out in the world who was able to hold this little card in their hands and know that I remembered them. They weren’t ever equal to the generosity that I was given, but at least it was a little bridge in time and distance.
Initially, I thought I would be able to finish 100 cards in a year, but it ended up taking me six.
In 2017 we ran really low on funds and my Mom had some scary health things happening, so we moved back to the US. At first I thought this would be the end of the project. We moved to LA because we had family there and it seemed like a good job market. It was really rough adjusting and the project got shelved for about a year.
Now, the story of how the project un-died and how I learned the real art of adventure:
In 2018, Nelson and I set foot on the Pacific Crest Trail for the first time. For those of you who don’t know this beast – it’s a 2,650 mile long walking trail that starts at the border of Mexico and California and ends just past the border of Washington and Canada. Some people “thru hike” it start to finish in one go in about half a year but after having already done the 6 months living-out-of-a-bag-thing I decided that my life called for something more gradual. We went out for the weekend and backpacked 30 miles from Cajon Pass to Wrightwood, California. It was hot and difficult and I probably had some low-level heat exhaustion but we were hooked. That summer we went out for two weeks in Northern California and I brought the post cards for the first time since we’d been home in California. #paintedpost was born again with card 29/100: “White Rock Lake” – Tahoe National Forest.
Since then we’ve hiked over half of the Pacific Crest Trail and I’ve continued to bring the cards on every trip. Some have been rained on, stepped on, bled on, or bent. I gave them away as thanks for hitches, places to stay, or just for bringing a smile to my face. I’ve painted at 12,000 ft at Forester Pass when I was close to tears with exhaustion and I’ve painted the smoke of an approaching wildfire on a hilltop near Etna Summit. I’ve slept more nights than I can count in a tent – and despite the exhaustion, the hunger, the fear, and the sometimes crappy food – I’ve never been happier.
#paintedpost forced me to sit down and be present even when I wanted to keep hiking. It encouraged me to stay up and paint a starry sky when I was exhausted from hiking. I soaked in landscapes instead of blasting through them or losing my memories in an endless stream of photos. It helped me recognize the endless ways that strangers and friends had helped us on our journey. And it kept me fired up to keep trekking into ever wilder and rugged places.
I finished #paintedpost in 2022 among cacti and yucca on a stretch of trail passing through Los Coyotes land. I gave the card to a hiker named “Magic” who inspired me with his courage, gratitude, and grit in the face of his Parkinson’s diagnosis.
I’ve only received one card in return – from an 80 year old woman who smuggled us into Yosemite National Park in the back of her Subaru. As she drove the windy mountain roads she told me, “don’t let your life become an ever tightening spiral of trepidation.” I sent her a painting of snow capped crags. She sent back a postcard on the back of which she had written: “As a man named Earnest Smith once said, ‘I need a mountain to rest my eyes upon’ – and you’ve given me one!”
In the end it didn’t matter the conditions I was in or even the country I was in. Adventure was available in my own country, in my own state. It wasn’t a place, it was a state of mind.
It was the friends we made along the way… just kidding! But in a way… yes!
My final takeaway from #paintedpost may be summed up as follows: The project which is late may still be worth finishing. The journey which is incomplete may still be worth taking.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I work in animation and games. My title fluctuates but usually it’s something like “Lead Background Designer” or “Senior 2D Artist.” You can see my industry work at https://ohkatiewells.com/
As a person I am warm and outgoing but my online presence is a bit reclusive. I’ve always had consistent work and supported myself through my craft, but I don’t cultivate a big social media following. I’m a bit hung up about the sale of my data and because most platforms are designed to be addictive they often end up taking time away from things I enjoy more. That said, I do value meeting and keeping in touch with other artists. Write to me here https://ohkatiewells.com/contact . I do check!
I’m interested in finding a way to work with cities or non-profits. I’m passionate about the environment, sustainability, and urbanism. I also draw comics and have been considering finding a way to use my craft to help with education and outreach on these topics. If any of these things sound like something you need an artist for, reach out here: https://ohkatiewells.com/contact . I’m especially interested in working locally with groups in California, but I’m open to the entire US.
I’m still making plans to get back out on the Pacific Crest Trail to complete the last 50%. There’s a chance I might even start a second series of 100 post cards to bring along the journey. For now, #paintedpost can be seen in it’s entirety here: https://ohkatiewells.com/paintedpost
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
When I started working on #paintedpost I mostly used social media for documenting my work. As a result, I was a poor record keeper for myself. Many of my pieces for #paintedpost lack high quality scans as a result. At the end of the project it was a huge investigative nightmare gathering quality images of each piece and documenting where it was created, when it was created, and where it ultimately ended up. Because I saw my work as for the app, not myself, I didn’t prioritize the long term curation of my own art. Building my own library of work and documenting it well in written form, as well as curating it for my website, is an ongoing labor of love.
Always scan your work. Don’t forget that you own it, not the machine. Social media is one way to make it but it’s not the only way. I’ve gotten most of my work through work of mouth. And one job I even got the old fashioned way – with an online application and a link to my portfolio.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
One of the best modern video essayists on the art of the backyard adventure is Beau Miles https://www.youtube.com/@BeauMiles . If you don’t know where to start, try “Run The Line” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxCghemtjjM
I also recommend a documentary by Happen Films called “Fools and Dreamers: Regenerating A Native Forest” for inspiration on what a small group of motivated people can achieve together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VZSJKbzyMc&t=807s
For art tutorials from one of the greatest sketchbook keepers and watercolor legends of our time, I recommend the talented James Gurney: https://www.youtube.com/@JamesGurney
I also recommend finding the nearest hiking trail to your house and hiking it. Bonus points if you walk directly out your front door to the trailhead.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ohkatiewells.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-wells-6499396a/
- Other: https://ohkatiewells.com/paintedpost
Image Credits
Nelson Wells