We were lucky to catch up with Katy Horan recently and have shared our conversation below.
Katy , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
I left art school wanting to illustrate children’s books. A career as a fine artist making work for galleries didn’t even seem like a possibility at the time. I did everything I was taught to do: I sent my portfolio to art directors and editors, but was continually rejected because my work was “too dark and weird” for children’s books. I could have figured out how to make my style more mainstream, but instead I doubled down on the dark and the weird and started sharing it online (keep in mind this was circa 2005, so that means something a bit different than it does today). Some people started to take notice though, and I began showing in small galleries. This allowed me to develop my own original vision that eventually led to a number of projects perfect for me and my original vision.
It’’s a risk I continue to take. If I were to tweak my style to be more mainstream or to fit more specifically in a single genre, my career might be a bit more predictable, but making the work that is absolutely original to me is worth the unpredictability.
Katy , 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?
Since my goal of illustrating children’s books didn’t work out right away, I started showing my work in galleries. For about a decade, I exhibited mostly paintings and drawings that technically weren’t illustration but had a strong focus on character and narrative. Then in 2017, I illustrated my first book: Literary Witches: A Celebratrion of Magical Women Writers. This book is a collaboration between myself and the writer Taisia Kitaiskaia. Literary Witches was later turned into an Oracle deck (similar to a tarot deck) and I also illustrated Ask Baba Yaga: Poetic Remedies for Troubled Times, also written by Taisia. Since the first book, I have been getting regular illustration work for magazines and record labels. I still show in galleries as well, just not as often. I had a solo show in Dec of last year at Grayduck Gallery in Austin, Tx.
My work doesn’t fit cleanly in any specific niche. It is very much it’s own thing. At times its beautiful, sad, funny, scary, creepy, disturbing. Sometimes it’s all those things all at once. This has made it hard to follow a predictable career path, but I love everything I make and I always remain loyal to my own point of view. Right now I am developing both a picture book AND a graphic horror novel. Two vert different types of books, but they both fit into my world. I may not be the most universal illustrator, but those who choose me for my projects do so because they love my specific vision and style.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
That true artists eat, sleep and breathe their work. That they are always working. That women artistes cannot also be mothers. I learned this in art school where the coolest kid on campus was the one who hadn’t slept in 4 days because he was working non stop on an animation project. Sleep deprivation and a vacant stare was the ultimate status symbol. Of course that’s fine for 20 year olds in art school, but absolutely ridiculous for me as an adult person who wants to actually function in the world. It took me so long to let go of that toxic work ethic. I am 42 now and have a 7 year old daughter and since having her, I have learned that constant work and obsession over work is actually bad for the work. As an artist, letting the work and ideas breathe at times while I am away from the studio living my real life is a very healthy part of my practice.
And women artists can absolutely also be mothers! Most of my female artist friends have children and are devoted to both their families and their artistic practices. The idea we cannot be mothers is antiquated and was unfortunately born during a time when women artists had to fight to be taken seriously by their male contemporaries. Things are different now, and the role of women in a family system often is very different than what our foremothers were facing in the last century.
: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I just want to tell stories. In any form I can. I’d love to make an animated short someday. I feel that would be the ultimate form of storytelling for me. I am always driven by the ideas I have not yet used or the projects I have not started. That can make working on my current projects difficult, because I tend to get more excited about whatever I want to do next, but it keeps me moving forward.
As far as the practicalities of my career are concerned, I make decisions based on whatever will allow me to make more work in the future. That’s my main goal, I just want the opportunity to continually pursue the next idea, then the one after that, then the one after that, etc…
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.Katyart.com
- Instagram: @GoodyHoran