Introduction to the artist
Well, hello, and Happy New Year!
I know I’m slightly behind jumping on the blog bandwagon, but better late than never, right?
So, to kick off my first-ever post, it makes sense to share maybe a bit about who I am.
My name is Kate and last year I turned 40 and had a bit of a mid-life crisis! OK, that’s not quite true, but many of my friends and family probably thought I did when I announced I’d be leaving my corporate role of nearly 20 years to become a mural artist!
I started painting at a young age!
Throwing it back to the year 2000, I studied spatial and interior design at Gloucestershire College of Arts and Technology. I went on to work as a Kitchen and Bathroom designer for two local businesses in Cheltenham for nearly 7 years. In 2007 I joined Kohler Co. as a bathroom designer and worked my way up through the business, where I became a senior designer and project manager for the corporate sponsorship between Kohler Co. and Manchester United FC.
Completing my first full season with MUFC
In 2022 whilst still working full-time I started to slowly build my side hustle. Painting murals at the weekends or taking holiday from the day job to start building a portfolio of work. I can’t recommend this approach enough, for anyone who has a dream to make that career change! It allowed me the time to prepare, both financially and mentally to start my own business and eventually become self-employed.
Skip to January 2025, and I’m sitting here writing this blog as a full-time, self-employed mural artist! Something that still blows my mind. If you had ever told me I’d be turning 40 and having a complete career change all in the same year, I’d have thought you were a tad bonkers!
I actually painted my first mural in 2010 for my best friend's little girl nursery. However, I had NO idea this would one day become my career or that you could even paint full time and not be classed as the ‘starving artist’.
Multi-tasking painting murals and babysitting! My first-ever mural of a beautiful blossom tree.
I obviously can’t give you an insight into my world without mentioning my furry friend, Norman the Toy Poodle. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m ‘that’ dog mum! The one who got the puppy in lockdown in 2020, and said “he won’t be allowed upstairs/on the sofa/on the bed”. *insert eye roll.
Always so helpful!!
That clearly went out the window and now he rules the place, and me daily!
No explanation needed!
Norman, also known as Norm, and Normie, is literally my shadow. Poodles are renowned for being clingy, but I had no idea how real the separation anxiety was. This means, that if clients are dog people and fancy Norman cuddles, he often comes along to ‘assist’ me when painting murals. I’m all for taking your dog to work!
In January 2024 I decided to invest in myself and my new business and signed up for the mural business program run by Patrycia Hannagan (PJ), an awesome Australian artist known as Mural Nomad.
I completed 12 months of business coaching, having weekly group calls with all the other artists in the program and digital modules on all aspects of running your own business as a muralist. I plan to do a whole blog post on this soon, but it was invaluable to my growth in 2024, and being part of a mural artist community gave me one of the best opportunities of my art career to date! Watch this space for more on this.
Painting with PJ in Australia, August 2024
If you got to this point without being completely bored, I thank you for sticking around.
I’m holding myself accountable (uh oh!) and sharing that I plan to write one blog post per week. I know, I know, like those who join the gym in January and quit by Feb, it probably won’t last long. But I plan to try, which is the main thing!
Catch you all next week,
Kate & Norm x