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

Lori , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I have earned a living as a working studio artist my entire adult life. 46 years!

I think of myself as the owner of a small-business first, an artist/creative second. Building my business to the point where I earn a comfortable living took years and an enormous effort, and still takes an enormous effort. There are so many steps and things to attend to beyond simply making art. And all of those steps need to continue if I want my business to remain successful.

Marketing is a huge component of my day-to-day studio practice.
Time spent taking photos, editing photos, communicating with clients, advertising, posting to social media, entering shows, etc, etc, etc, is time spent not creating art, but it is what allows me to continue making and selling my art. No balls can be dropped without consequence.

My business has been built on the foundation of relationships and those take time to build and maintain. Gallery representation, relationships with art consultants, customers at art fairs and shows are each crucial to my big picture. I am fortunate to have a studio in an art center that is open to the public where people who might otherwise never be aware of my work, have the opportunity to experience it.

I’m not sure there is anything that could have sped up the process. Maybe a couple of business classes would have been helpful….

So much of success is luck, being in the right place at the right time, having the right person connect with your work. I do know that as long as I want to continue to earn a living from my art, I need to continue to promote myself and my work, look for and take opportunities, do what I can to insure my work is seen.

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

I started my career in clay as an apprentice to a local potter, honing my skills and learning the rudimentary basics of running a studio. I went on to start my own studio in the basement of a townhouse in Washington, DC. that was studio space for six painters, one sculptor and me. My kiln was in an outdoor airshaft between buildings. I sold my work through craft shows and galleries. Early on, I was juried into an art center that is open to the public and that provided me an additional opportunity to sell my work. I started out making functional stoneware, brown and blue mugs, dinnerware, things people use in everyday life and then moved to working in earthenware, making brightly colored, heavily decorated pieces that began to span the distance between function and “art”.

About fifteen years ago, I began working almost exclusively in a palette of black and white in a conscious effort to simplify process and design. Color has found its way back in as my work continues to evolve, and I have learned that in the end, process is never simple and good design is always balanced and strong.

My current body of work involves the play of dark against light, the pull of empty space against the inclination to fill it up, the placement of line and mark, balance. My pieces are a visual and tactile exploration of my medium and have begun to include some elements of mixed-media, mostly wire.

I work with designers, art consultants, architects and individuals, providing proposals for homes, offices, commercial spaces. Installations are comprised of component pieces that I put together to form strong, cohesive compositions. Because my work is modular, installations are limited in size only by the site wall. I work with excellent art installers or can provide hanging templates for clients.

My work has been included in definitive shows and art fairs in the US, Europe and Asia. I am a participant in the State Department’s Arts in Embassies program and have work in the permanent collection of the US Embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan. My work is part of the permanent collection of the the Wustum/Racine Art Museum, the IBM Corporation, Amazon Web Services, New York Presbyterian Hospital and is in numerous homes and private collections.

Fun stuff: My work has been used as props in movies and on television; most recently in Maggie’s Plan, Zero Day, Succession and Inventing Anna.

I love what I do! I go to sleep most nights thinking about what I’ll make the next day, I wake up itching to get into the studio

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

So not as much about social media, but more creating your own opportunities with social media and whatever tools are at hand.

My work had been purchased by a set-designer who was working on what was then an unnamed Netflix series, which turned out to be “Inventing Anna”. There was a lot of press around the show when it was released, but none of it was about me or my art! I left a voice message in the general mailbox of my local NPR radio station, saying who I was and that my art was in the Laverne Cox character’s apartment in Inventing Anna. The arts editor called me back, did a phone interview, put me on the radio twice, did an online write-up with interview, photos, promoted it on social media. I got a lot of mileage out of this, promoted it on my own social media and generally enjoyed being a little famous. It was so easy!

Specifically re social media, I use Planoly to set up my posts ahead of time so I only have to think about it a couple times a month if I’m being efficient

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Having people connect with my work is so rewarding. That connection, their words, knowing the way my work makes them feel, having them want to live with my work in their homes, completes the circle for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lorikatz.com
• Instagram: lorikatzart
• Facebook: lori katz ceramic design