We recently connected with Katharina May and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Katharina, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
Sometimes I feel like I´m a lost soul. I´m looking around and I see people struggling, people fighting, people turning against each other. There are enough difficulties in this world we have to face, like forces of nature, famines or an stupid accident involving injury. But there is so much more beauty and reason in this world, on our planet Earth. I want to show all this. My purpose to paint is to show the world how it is, how it should not be and also how it could be. My wish is for us to evolve a better understanding for our environment, for our coexistence. Art is a language we all understand and I´m speaking up for more than just myself.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
As a young girl I was often found with a pen and piece of paper, sitting on the floor drawing. I loved having my quiet moments, being in my own world of imagination, especially after exploring the real world. I was raised in Germany in a hard functional society by a mother who worked a full time job and a father who was often not at home. My mother has seen my talent and so she gave me some oil paint and canvas and I started painting bigger pictures. I painted things I´ve seen, but also things I´ve never seen before, like a donkey in a jacket or flowers growing out of ears. But in particular I loved painting animals. Animals were always my center of attraction and calm anchor. Often they are still to find in my today artworks. I grew older and life happened, but I never stopped drawing and painting.
As an adult and after a career at the office – which is far away from any creativity – I noticed I can do more with my talent than just paint a nice picture. I still loved having my quiet painting moments after exploring the world and I realized, with a painting I can show things in a different way. Art is able to shift things, to bring out the unexpected and show it under a special spot-light but also to touch people. With my art I could get attention for what was in my head and what was going on out there. That knowing and with enough courage and the feeling that I could touch the sky and the stars I started my own business as a freelance artist. And I failed. No gallery would take me, nobody was interested to buy my art and I could not even find an outside contract or customer orders. I was devastated. I was broke, but I knew I had to cut my way through.
What I needed next was my own webpage to show my work to a bigger audience. Back then I was a young single mom on a shoestring budget and I had to keep my credit tight. Therefore I learned how to code HTML and JavaScript and I built up my first website. It took some years and I got up and I started all over again, but this time with all my hope, faith in my talent and with a way bigger collection and variety of paintings. I made it to a point where I am now. I paint mainly with acrylics from small to huge canvas and even on walls. A few weeks ago I ended a 3 month single exhibition with 74 paintings shown. I get invited to art shows and network meetings.
I´m more the type of an old fashion artist with brushes and smeared fingers, even if I brought my drawing skills to the digital world where I create illustrations for books or logos for little companies. To paint on a canvas, wood or cardboard feels like being free and being myself. Art, especially paintings are my real love and passion.
In my paintings I work with awareness and confrontation. I use a bit of Surrealism and Realism to melt in glitches. Some might be not your cup of tea, therefore are others which strike a chord. To show the innocent paired with harm let you think about the whole topic. Being allowed to put the finger in a wound to show what is wrong, that is what my art shall do – to think about it.
With hard work and good people around me, I could expand my work field and now I teach art at our community college. It´s a great feeling to know the way I paint is appreciated by so many people. To me it is also fascinating to visit museums and art galleries wherever I am. Now I´m happy to do customer orders, to cooperate with other artists or interested parties, to hold art classes and let grow my collection of paintings. I sell my paintings international wide and I am always thankful for art fairs, exhibitions and art galleries who work with me. You can find me and most of my work on www.gallerymay.com.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Persistence. Not sure if it´s a quality, but never give up! I was failing and falling more than once, but I am always getting up back on track, put in all effort and I work on my goals. Persistence is the key. – not just for an artist, it´s for all businesses out there. Another quality is more a privilege I´ve had, which is to travel. A lot of journeys and living abroad helped me to see and understand our world a bit better. It was an eye opener for me to realize what living in Central Africa means, or even to move from Montana to California. People in Europe are close together but wide apart. Those impressions are instrumental in my art.
Last but not least helped constant work and creativity to improve my skills. I create environment friendly structures wirh bird sand or cardboard. That way I bring together old habits with new more eco-friendly ways.
When you have a talent you have to work on it. Keep up with your former work or get even better. You and yourself will be your own biggest supporter. With all the obstacles, poorer times, maybe even haters in a corner. At the end of the day it´s all you and your success.
When I am not happy with a painting I put it away and look at it just weeks later again. In case I am still not good with it and I don´t see any outcome on my inner eye I start over and create something new. I am free to let my art inspire myself before I inspire anyone else.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
The number one challenge in art these days is for sure our fast steps forward in the digital world. As a real painter who uses brushes, fingers and works with all kind of structure, like bird sand or wood chips, it´s hard to keep up speed with an AI. I´m sure people will realize the difference between real art and computer generated art, but it may take a while till the appreciation for hand made art get´s back the fame it deserves. Today I am not sure how this will change the art world. My intensions are to work on good art and get in touch with more wonderful people, artists, curators and galleries. Best for an artist is the chance to get seen and heard by a diversity of cultures and all kind of societies.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.gallerymay.com
- Instagram: gallerymay_art
Image Credits
Katharina May
