We recently connected with Kat Furtado and have shared our conversation below.
Kat, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
I love this question. I have found that the more you engage creativity, the more it engages back with you. It becomes an almost living entity–a process that runs itself. I can’t help but see similarities between creativity and the scientific method, even though many people think of creativity and science as being opposite fields. They really aren’t. I’m oversimplifying, but they’re functions of the same processes for me–curiosity (a hypothesis or plan), play and interaction (experiments), and observations and assessment so you can do it better, differently, or more effectively the next time.
Creativity, to me, is an extension of those three attributes: curiosity, play, and tenacity. I allow myself a chance to try new things KNOWING I will make mistakes along the way but also knowing that’s the way to get closer to what I want to be making. And there’s this idea out there that somehow people either HAVE creativity or don’t. It isn’t about talent or some incredible skill. It’s about constantly trying again and again.
Most of us, as we become adults, stifle our sense of wonderment. We stop asking why something happens the way it does, or what we can do to change it. We stop looking at our sense of agency and we resign ourselves to what already exists. But a child? A child would never do that. A child would ask “why”. That simple act sets them on a path towards possibility. I work to choose that same path whenever I can. In that way, even if there are creative road blocks or months when I don’t have the time and energy to create the way I want to, creativity is still there. I can revive it any time by engaging with curiosity, play, and tenacity.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I’m Kat Furtado. I’m a contemporary fine artist specializing in botanicals, portraiture, and mixed media abstract art. I am also a Speech-Language Pathologist by trade and a mom to two young daughters. I began painting about eight years ago to combat the isolation of early parenthood, but I didn’t paint with any sense of regularity or purpose until after the birth of my second child in 2017. At that point, I began to fully dedicate myself to learning all I could. My business, Kat Furtado Art, opened in 2019, and it’s been a constant companion ever since.
My work as an artist lies in discovering where storytelling, visual language, and sense-of-self intersect. Our lived experiences shape our perception and they influence what we see, know, and how we interpret the world. To demonstrate this in my work, I use sculpting media, transparent substrates, monoprints, stitching, watercolor, and acrylic paint to build textured mixed-media reliefs in meticulous layers.
My artwork overtly incorporates organic, oceanic, and botanical shapes from my life in Southern California, as well as figurative and anatomical structures of human forms. I love the tension of transparency with opacity and motion living with stability. Circular shapes in my art represent continuity, momentum, and change.
Art allows me to curate potential: I excavate and construct that which is but which cannot always be seen. Over time, I carefully coax materials together. As I work, I navigate every piece with the scientific curiosity of my clinical field (Speech-Language Pathology), capturing carefully unfolding narratives, layer by layer, as they evolve. The bodies of work I create in this season of my art are composed within these layers: storytelling in strata, examining moments both exceptional and ordinary.
I have a line of illustrated merchandise which I sell on my website (including tumblers, stickers, keychains, pins, and prints) and I sell my original artwork through my website in collection releases. My work has collectors worldwide and has been in multiple juried exhibitions, shows, and publications. In 2022, I premiered my first solo exhibition through the Women United Art Movement. Most recently, my artwork has been showcased in British Vogue Magazine’s April, May, and June 2023 print issues.
You can find out more about my life, my work, and my process on my website www.katfurtadoart.com, or on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok @katfurtadoart
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I definitely think that my tenacity and firm belief in growth mindset has completely altered my path. There is absolutely no way I would have been able to pursue art as a completely new skillset AND a career without it, especially in the earliest days of motherhood. You CAN do new things, you CAN learn new things, and every small change can make a difference.
I also believe that my understanding of communication and connection from my career as a Speech-Language Pathologist gives me a completely unique perspective. How I interact with the others and how I communicate about my art has been deeply influenced by my education and years working as an SLP. It’s also a huge part of my messaging to remind people that they have VALUE just as they are. This absolutely stems from my previous career as an SLP. I believe that every one of us is important and our voices matter. When I say, “Come as you are,” and “Live in wonderment” on social media–I mean it. I want people to feel safe and seen and validated. Those values and the need to communicate them are a remnant of my work as an SLP.
And finally, I think that if I am being honest, one more area that has really affected my journey is accepting failure as, potentially, the biggest part of my success. I really believe that if I am on the right path, I will mess up. I will make mistakes frequently. The mistakes are learning opportunities, and they ultimately strengthen my skillset. It doesn’t feel great to do things “incorrectly”, but I also know that when something goes wrong, I’m about to learn something new that could change everything. That part is the part I love.
If you’re early on in your journey, whatever it is, I’d tell you a few things.
1) Remember that no matter how far along you are in your process, you always have something learn and somewhere else to go.
2) When things don’t go the way you planned, give yourself grace, give yourself rest, and then pick it up and try again a new way.
3) You’re the only person in the entire world with your voice and your unique experiences. That’s YOUR brilliance, and no one can take that away from you. Use it.
4) Recognize that you’re on your own path. Don’t concern yourself with what others are doing for how far along they are. Take ownership of yourself and where you are.
5) Lift others up, and know there’s room for all of us to succeed.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
This may be an unexpected response, but my answer is, without question, my kids. Nothing on earth gave me more clarity in my values and how I act upon them like having children.
They watch me. I know this. So if I tell THEM they can do magnificent things if they try, but they see that I don’t do the same, what am I really teaching them? I tell them that when something doesn’t go right, they should try again. But if I don’t try again? If I give up? What does THAT teach them? I teach them to take space for themselves when they need it, to say no to things that don’t serve them or make the world better, and to do what is right whenever they can. I have an obligation to do those things too. My job as a parent is to model that for them as much as possible. I can open the doors for them so that they can build their lives their way as they grow.
The reality is that even though I never felt like I was this way before I had kids, the simple act of becoming a parent gave me the courage to do the hardest things I could think of. They have never known me any other way. They have only ever seen me as an artist. They’ve only known me the way I am now. It’s deeply humbling when I think about it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.katfurtadoart.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/katfurtadoart
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/katfurtadoart
Image Credits
Kat Furtado
