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

Hi Katie, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

If I could give a young creative person one single piece of advice, it would be to completely stop listening to everyone and anyone else. Growing up, I was a ver creative kid. Art was always my favorite subject in school and it was the one thing I felt like I was good at. When I was a teenager, the guy that my mom was married to at the time told me that there was no point in being an artist and that I would never make any money or amount to anything with an art career. I don’t know why but I listened to him in a way and subconsciously stifled my creative side. I ended up going to college for biology and eventually dropped out because deep down, I didn’t belong in a classroom of 200 people with a microscope and zero will to live. Years later, during the 2020 world shut-down, I ended up just doodling one day and then quite literally becoming addicted to creating. I haven’t stopped since!

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

I started creating art because I was bored and trying to find myself at age 25 but what I wasn’t expecting was that OTHER people would care about anything I made. After I started posting some drawings and paintings, I saw a demand for not just art but MY art. I couldn’t believe it then and I still can’t believe it now. I started making custom pet portraits for customers who wanted to memorialize a furry loved one for themselves or someone dear to them. I love getting lost in detail, and a lot of my art is inspired by nature and music. By day, I am the production planner for a manufacturing facility here in Buffalo for a corporation based out of WI. I am also a wife to my amazing husband Matt and a dog mom. I love living in Buffalo and being able to take advantage of living in such a large creative community. We have so much happening here! We have an amazing and inclusive local music scene and I like to spend a lot of my free time going to shows. It’s hard to NOT be inspired in a city like Buffalo.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I can see myself teaching some workshops / hosting some fun art events in the future for sure. Deep down I know that I need to find a way to tie music into my art in a greater way to be the most fulfilled creatively. But I also think it’s important to remember and keep remembering that part of the beauty and magic of art is the creation of something that didn’t exist before. To give life to something that would not have existed otherwise I guess. There doesn’t always have to be a major goal or mission in mind to start.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I’m honestly trying to think of what a non-creative looks like. What I can say is that being a creative person is all-consuming. I can’t NOT create. If I go on vacation or something, I usually don’t bring any art supplies with me so that I can be fully present in each experience but it’s almost counter-intuitive because I’m almost itching to draw or paint if I go too long. It’s all-consuming because to create certain pieces, I have to be in certain mindsets. For example, I cannot make a super happy and light-hearted piece while my emotional well-being is in turmoil. To quote Robert Henri: “The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.”

Contact Info:

• Website: katiewojtanikdesigns.etsy.com
• Instagram: @katiewojtanikdesigns and @_katiew__
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiewojtanik/

Image Credits
All artwork pictured is an original design created by Katie Wojtanik.