Unveiling the Joy of Mixed Media with Cat Rains

Have you ever reached a point in life where the path you're on just doesn't feel right anymore? That moment of realization hit mixed-media collage artist and teacher Cat Rains like a splash of vibrant paint on a blank canvas. She joins us on Mind Over Medium to recount her colorful transition from an unfulfilling conventional career to the rich, textured world of art—a journey that teaches us it's never too late to discover and pursue our passions. Listen as Cat shares not only her personal transformation but also offers wisdom on cultivating joy through her course "Collage Joy," painting a picture of the fulfillment found in both creating and imparting knowledge.

Navigating the landscape of a creative business can feel like a juggling act, requiring a balance of discipline and innovation. In our candid conversation, we uncover how Cat harnesses focus to steer clear of the alluring 'shiny objects' that threaten to distract. We also wade into the digital realm where mastering technology becomes an essential brushstroke in the portrait of artistic success. The dialogue branches out to touch on the importance of embracing opportunities that may initially seem daunting, providing a masterclass in growing beyond comfort zones and confronting resistance with strategies like the "task tower" for productivity.

If you've ever felt stifled creatively or stuck in a mundane task, this episode offers a splash of inspiration. We break down how small, consistent art steps can lead to leaps in confidence and how embarking on a 100-day collage project can unfold into an astonishing display of personal growth and artistic evolution. Cat's insights into setting achievable goals and the joy of progress stitch together a narrative encouraging us to weave creativity into the fabric of our lives, transforming the ordinary into extraordinary. Tune in as we explore the canvas of life with Cat Rains, and get ready to pick up your own artistic tools with renewed vigor and a heart full of joy.

Connect with Cat Here

Connect with Lea Ann Here

Transcript

Lea Ann: 0:00

Welcome to Mind Over Medium, a podcast for artists who want to make money doing what they love. When you tune in each week, you will learn how to attract your ideal commissions, approach galleries for representation, have a great online launch of your work, and how to do it all with less overwhelm and confusion. You will have the opportunity to hear from amazing artists who will share how they have built their successful creative businesses. My hope is to create a space where artists and the creative curious can gather to learn about one of the most important tools creative entrepreneurs need in their toolbox their mindset. Thanks so much for tuning in to Mind Over Medium podcast. Let's get started.

Lea Ann: 0:45

Hello, I hope everyone is doing well today. It's a rainy, gloomy day here in Atlanta, but mine is about to be brightened by my guest, cat Rains. Cat is a creative entrepreneur who specializes in making and teaching mixed media art, and I'm happy to have you here on this gloomy day. It's gloomy for you, too. We've already discussed the weather, but I will ask the questions that I ask every guest to tell us about yourself who are you, where do you live? Give us a bit more deep, tell about what you do and then describe the time in your life when you felt the most creative.

Cat: 1:20

Okay, well, first, thank you for inviting me to part of your podcast.

Lea Ann: 1:24

I'm very I'm so happy you're here, oh great.

Cat: 1:26

So who am I? I have I came. So I'm a mixed media collage artist and I came about like discovering that I was an artist kind of through the back door. I came from a family that was very creative, but my family didn't have really room for me to be creative, so I was kind of labeled the uncreative one. I was the responsible one. You know we all have our roles. So I saw my parents being creative with writing and drawing and painting, sculpting, but I didn't do any of that. However, I was always a crafter, so I was always doing knitting and crochet and even paint by numbers, you know all kinds of things like that. And I was also very entrepreneurial as a kid.

Cat: 2:14

But I didn't consider that being an artist because I can't draw Now. I can draw now because I forced myself to learn. You know I took classes on it because that's what you're supposed to do, right, as an artist. But I don't consider that something I like to do. I just it's a skill that I eventually learned. So I didn't really discover that I could do art or that art was part of my life's passion or calling until I was in my early 30s and I was in a very demanding university job actually, and I realized that I was miserable doing a traditional job and I was there doing good work and I was being rewarded for it. And I was miserable and, ironically, I was a career counselor, so that's the kind of work I did. So I was an unhappy career counselor. So I started career counseling myself and over the course of time I realized I just needed some kind of outlet, you know, to make myself feel alive.

Cat: 3:15

So the only thing I could think of doing was collage, because I had a memory of myself as a 10-year-old where I made one collage. It was the only collage I'd ever made. I said you know what? Who can't make a collage? I can't draw, but I could tear up paper. So one day I tore up a bunch of magazines and made my first collage and it made me feel outrageously alive. It was like, oh my God, this is amazing. And you know, secretly inside my head I thought, oh, wouldn't it be great to be an artist, like, really like, make a living this way. But my art was very juvenile. I didn't have. I mean, I know now because I can look back at it. You know there wasn't. You know those first. Collages were nothing you know in terms of having so-called talent, but I knew that I had to follow what made me feel great. So I just kept making them, and making them, and making them and eventually I took an art class many like three or four years into this, with a magazine collage artist and my art started getting you know, incrementally, slowly, better, but it was a very long path. So that was 2030s. Now I'm in my 60s and I really now am making a living as an artist.

Cat: 4:26

You know, I had many years as a corporate person. I traveled the country. I eventually moved on to work for the Myers-Briggs Company, which is a personality assessment, so I would. I trained all over the country for them. But, interestingly enough, as I was training you know corporate types on a personality assessment, I was also learning how to teach, and teaching is actually turns out a passion of mine as well.

Cat: 4:51

So when I eventually left that corporate job which was in 2018, at first I took a traditional artist route, which is you sell your art because that's what you do, right? Oh, art. I never thought of my, that I was ever going to teach art. That was never on the radar. But after a few years of kind of experimenting and trying to hone in my voice. I realized when I had a voice and that people were asking me to learn it, like they wanted to learn what I did.

Cat: 5:18

So a couple years ago I hired a coach and I started actually putting together a class which came out last year which is called Claus Joy. So that's where I am right now I'm teaching art and also doing art. But selling art is not the way I make a living now. Maybe it will be in the future, but right now it's turning other people on to what turns themselves on with creativity. So that's what really gets me excited right now and it's very creative. That is very, very, that is very creative. Even though it doesn't involve a lot of new art making. It involves making art classes for other people.

Lea Ann: 5:56

That's a great story and I think the thing that I love about it the most is that the path can be long and windy and bumpy, but you can still get there because you trusted your instincts that this is where you wanted to go. You just kept exploring and kept trying things. Sounds like you didn't let being a beginner stop you, because I think, as adults this comes up a lot on the podcast A lot of people are afraid to be new at something and bad at something, but that didn't stop you. I love that.

Cat: 6:31

And through the courses that I teach, I'm trying to foster. Basically, it's okay to make awful art for a while, because you don't make good art until you make a lot of crappy stuff Although, by the way, all the art I made early on I didn't think was crappy.

Cat: 6:46

It's just that it's gotten incrementally better over time, because you had to practice and you got to keep putting stuff out there until you eventually if you find that, as you're calling, that was definitely something I had to do I've been compelled to do exactly what I'm doing now since my 30s. I just didn't realize one, it was going to take so long, and two, I didn't really know how I was going to make the living. Doing it. I really did follow what felt good moment to moment, and I also knew that having a corporate job was actually important, not because it taught me how to teach, but it also provided a steady income. Not all of us go straight to art and make the living as an artist.

Cat: 7:31

It's not the path for everyone, and for me by having a corporate job first, I was able to save a lot of money so that when I did jump off the cliff to become an artist. I had a nest egg. I didn't have to rely on art sales. Now I do rely on my art sales, but it took a while before I could establish myself so that I could actually live off my art.

Lea Ann: 7:57

Yeah, and I think that's pretty common, that people you're pursuing this one thing while still doing another thing, and I think there's not one thing wrong with any of that. I mean, I did the same thing and it's just part of the path. Yeah, right. Well, I'm fascinated by your time with Myers-Briggs, because I'm an ENFJ, just so you know.

Cat: 8:20

I know what that means.

Lea Ann: 8:22

I bet you do. I've kind of forgotten. Honestly, I think it was for work. At one point we had to take these personality tests and that's what mine was. So how does that, or does it impact your? I'm sure it impacts your teaching, but does it impact your creating I?

Cat: 8:40

think it impacts? It's a good question, leanne. I'm trying to think. I think, well, the Myers-Briggs is based on personality types. So what we're attracted to create, I think, is related to Myers-Briggs too.

Cat: 8:55

So, by the way, my preferences are ENFP, very close to yours, and my personality type just happens to be someone who needs to find meaning in their work and I don't want to be told what to do, which is very ENFP. So I want to kind of float around without a lot of structure. So it's kind of how I do my art and what kind of art I'm attracted to. So the kind of art I do is art that one lights me up, and I encourage the people to only do art that lights them up. And then, how do you find the meaning behind the art? Because, to me, all art has meaning. There is some, but that's very ENFP that's my language is why would I do it if it didn't have meaning?

Cat: 9:36

So a little sidetrack, but when I first quit my job in 2018, I had been in a corporate job for 20 years and, although I considered myself a collage artist, I had spent so much time just doing that and being a corporate person that I didn't. I was thinking. Maybe I'm more than a collage artist. So I gave myself a couple of years of playing with every art form known to man, anything that just struck my fancy. So I took flower painting and portraits and landscapes and oil painting, anything that came across my radar. I said I'll try that, and but nothing stuck. You know, everything was just like, and I think the reason it didn't stick is when it wasn't mine. It was good, I needed to find that out, sure, right.

Cat: 10:29

But I also discovered that, though you know, making flowers just doesn't resonate in terms of having a meeting behind it. I couldn't find meaning in flowers, but, by the way, I find meaning in abstracts now, which I think is equal to flowers. I don't think there's anything different than though it's just that that does give me meaning. So the question is how do you find what the meaning behind your art which, by the way, is very much my type Like? Why do it? There's not some kind of profound meaning behind it?

Lea Ann: 10:58

Well, and I think your willingness to try a bunch of different styles and ways of creating probably really solidifies your practice and what you do now, because you're not kind of wondering, oh, like you probably don't have much like shiny object syndrome, like a lot of people, especially creative people, can have. It's like oh, that looks pretty fun over there, let's go over there Like you did, that you know. So that's pretty cool.

Cat: 11:24

That is true, but I still have to keep myself from shiny objects and I'm constantly because it's also part of my type. The big difference is your type. The difference in your type and my type because we're only one letter difference is my type really is prone to moving to the next shiny thing.

Cat: 11:41

The next score. All that goes past. Oh, so I have trained myself not to basically follow my type. I've chosen one path and I'm very clear about the path. That doesn't mean I won't change it into a three years, but I keep weeding away Things that are distracting. Basically, I have a list on my wall over here of my top 10 priorities for the year, like what are the top 10 projects, and I'm just going down them one by one because otherwise Pinterest oh, you know, because you know people and you know people in our are mentoring I don't have time for Pinterest. Pinterest is a skill set all by itself. You need to take classes on Pinterest. You need to. You need to hire people to help. You have Pinterest Right now. I just got to do I'm doing YouTube, my game and teaching. You know teaching a couple classes that are fine.

Lea Ann: 12:33

Yeah, and you know that it is a skill to be able to count on yourself to stay focused, because I can also be very distractible. So, yeah, I do feel like it is. You can learn how to create focus in restraint for yourself.

Cat: 12:54

Right, just because we have a personality type that wants to be multi passionate and wants to do everything, that doesn't mean it's going to help us get to where we want to go. You know, absolutely. It's like making. It's making a choice all the time. Yeah, to make choices, sometimes outside of what comes easy. The art comes easy, yeah, but the business side of it is very much opposite of probably mine and your type.

Lea Ann: 13:23

And it, yes, and it's interesting because I found that, you know, once I kind of fine-tuned my creative vibe and style and what lit me up. Then you have to learn this whole other piece of the puzzle and, frankly, it feels like it's ever changing. It's like you learn one thing, oh, got to learn another thing, and I know, oh, my gosh, yeah, I had to really make up my mind and I have to remind myself that this is, this is exciting. It's exciting to learn new things and I'm capable, because sometimes it can be difficult.

Cat: 14:05

Yeah, that's funny. The word capable is, for some reason, is a really meaningful word, like I have to tell myself, because it's so easy to just say I don't know how to do this, particularly when it comes to technology. You know, we're in the same age group and it's just. I grew up with none of this. You know, I didn't have a computer until I was in my mid 30s and I just have a kind of a block, you know. But I have a 30 year old niece that when I have an issue that I need to figure out, she'll sit down at my computer in 10 minutes. She figured it out without Googling, you know, she just does it To me it's like oh my God, but I'm learning.

Cat: 14:45

I'm learning, I can Google too.

Cat: 14:47

I can also figure this stuff out. I am capable, absolutely. But it's so weird because people connect with me all the time on Instagram my age or around my age and they go oh, they're so impressed with me because I know all this technology and I've just like I've whipped it, I've really got it, and my response is on the surface. You know, I know how to do it day by day. I know exactly what I need to do my business. But there's a million other things like accounting. Oh my God, accounting I'm not good at it.

Lea Ann: 15:19

I haven't figured that one out yet that's my next hurdle.

Cat: 15:21

How do? You do it yeah, because you gotta have a little bit you gotta know your own structure. Yeah, I'm not as good at that.

Lea Ann: 15:32

Yeah Well, my guess is, you will learn or find people to help you. I'm doing both. Yes, that's a good skill to have, too is to know your limitations and when to ask for help.

Cat: 15:46

Yeah.

Lea Ann: 15:48

Something else I read about you that I really, really resonated for me is that I wanted to talk to you about, is that you say yes to everything that shows up and you said, as a tool for letting go. Did I get that right?

Cat: 16:04

Yeah. So it sounds like it's counter counter to what I just said. I said yes to everything that shows up. I say yes to what show like. If something attracts me, I don't necessarily go for it, mm hmm. So I'm not saying yes to every opportunity. Yes, yeah, I am discerning about what is what do I have time for? You know where's my priorities. What I say yes to is particularly when things kind of get under my crawl, mm hmm. Or when things kind of annoy me a little bit or I feel resistance. I'll give you a good example.

Cat: 16:35

So my husband and I went to a Super Bowl party last night and I actually had to make, even though I prefer extraversion. You know, you would think this is just fine, but most of the people at this party I didn't know. So I have to really talk myself into this. So to me, the idea of saying yes is okay. The opportunity is there. Can I go into it without the mental chatter of like I don't want to be here? Why am I here? I could be sitting home watching the Super Bowl or not watching the Super Bowl, perfectly happy without the Super Bowl, but that makes me miserable at this party, you know, mm hmm.

Cat: 17:11

So the idea of saying yes is can I settle into wherever I am, yeah, and be completely at peace or at least quiet that mind that wants to go crazy? Yeah, that's true with art making too. You know, it's one of the things that I'm constantly developing in myself and also supporting other people to do, which is, as you're making art, can you quiet the voice that says this is shit, yeah, or this art, what are you and what you're doing? Because that voice to me is constantly wanting to do rail. You know, it's the mind thinking it knows better than your higher self, and that's kind of. You would ask the question earlier that didn't answer. You know what makes me feel most creative?

Lea Ann: 17:55

I think it's oh yeah, we skipped right over that. We got just done, right then.

Cat: 18:01

And we'll go back to that.

Cat: 18:02

So what makes me feel most creative is when it is really it's not a time Well, it is a time, but it's a way of being so, when I can actually be in my art without evaluating it at all, like if I can just be present from what I call a joyful place, which is not like a, it's more like can I just?

Cat: 18:22

Joyful place to me is there isn't any kind of dialogue going on, I am just fully focused on the next collage piece that I'm gluing down. Then I am in ecstasy and it doesn't really matter what I'm making. I actually it's mostly when I'm making things that I don't think are ever going to be seen by anybody, if I'm just making them for the joy of it, and those are the things that people want to buy, and I'm really really so connected to myself and the art. And connected to me is not some spiritual state, although it is spiritual, it's just dropping the thoughts, just let them go and be in the placing of that next thing. That's also true with business too. I have this whole thing where, if I can be so fully present in every task, I do that, not that I'm in love with the task, basically you know, I can be answering emails, it could be anything.

Cat: 19:15

I just want to love the task. I don't want to waste my life resisting what is in my life, like accounting, like I don't want to resist my taxes. I want to be into it. I want to be like oh wow, that was an interesting thing I did with the thing I bought, and I want to be into figuring out QuickBooks, which is one of my next adventures.

Lea Ann: 19:36

Yeah, I love all that so much. And here are the things that came up for me as you were speaking. One it sounds like being in the present moment, like you have been able to teach yourself or learn ways to get yourself there quickly and recognize when you get out of it, and it sounds like contentment. What you described to me, if I could sum it up, sounds like contentment. Does that resonate for you?

Cat: 20:06

Yeah, and it's not like I've gotten there oh it's yeah. Well, I see glimpses of it and it's constantly something I'm Like. Every morning, I say, okay, this is how I'm going to be in my life. But I have to remind myself, because my monkey brain, oh gosh, yeah, once the derail into all the worries and oh, yes, yeah, and you don't tell me I shouldn't be doing this because there's more productive things I could be doing, mm-hmm, I have to tell you, it's just a new thing I'm doing right now that I'm really.

Cat: 20:36

Yeah, I'm here so because I've been teaching for pretty much the last two years. I've been. The first year I just was developing this thing called Kalajjoy, which is a 12-week class. Then the next year I put it on a second time and I'm still doing it.

Cat: 20:50

Right now I'm in the middle of Kalajjoy and it takes all of my time and energy and because of that I don't do any art at all zero, and it really is a sadness that I don't get to do what I teach. So about two or three weeks ago I decided what would it be like if I gave myself Myself the gift of 15 minutes a day? I would just make a Kalajj Only of scraps. I've got tons of scraps in the studio, so only make a 15-minute Kalajj every day. So I started doing that. I did it. I started how many days ago? 13 days ago. Every day, 15 minutes, and every day I become obsessed, possessed with these little Kalajjas, because one they're for me, they're for no one else. I am filming some of them for Reels for Instagram, but I'm never going to show them if they're not good.

Cat: 21:39

But, that Kalajj is awful. I can just toss it, which is nice. This is actually going to become my 100-day project, but it's more than a 100-day project. I'm hoping that it's actually a life project For me. My morning routine is I journal. I do some self-care things first thing in the morning. This is part of my self-care thing. So instead of starting my morning once I get to my studio by answering emails, I am making a 15-minute Kalajj. Now that 15-minute Kalajj may turn into 30 minutes I can afford 30 minutes, but I'm starting my day with that and that's what makes me feel alive. It makes me feel creative. That is it. I don't want to spend my life not doing it, Not giving myself a gift of why I'm doing this in the first place.

Lea Ann: 22:33

Yeah, absolutely and in 15 minutes. There are maybe sometimes in our lives where you don't have that 15 minutes to spare, but I think for the most part we can find those 15 minutes Exactly and that's why I'm being very careful about doing it first thing.

Cat: 22:54

Yeah, If I try to fit it in before lunch or before the end of the day, when I'm spent I don't know how many energy, but this way it's like once I start, it's just like OK, just 15 minutes. By the way, I put a stopwatch on oh nice, I was going to ask you and then the stopwatch goes off and I still want to play and it's like OK, keep playing, Keep playing. Yeah, so right now, my 15-minute Kalajj was made this morning and what happens is I stop maybe at 20 minutes and then I let it dry. I go to work, I do my email and whatever, but I keep it's over there, I keep looking at it and I go. What else can I do? So when we're done talking, I'm going to go and finish it, but that will take like three minutes, Because I think all day and this just happens every day Every day I'm thinking why don't I just put that one piece to?

Cat: 23:44

the last night I was at the Super Bowl, dreaming of yesterday's Kalajj, I was like, oh God, I mean, I was trying to be in the football. The football was actually really good, so I was in the football. But I was like, oh, that Kalajj, I can't wait to get back to it.

Lea Ann: 23:59

I know I love that feeling when I'm in that really good flow where I can't wait to come back to the studio and be like I just need to look at it again. I mean, that to me is when I know, yeah, isn't that great.

Cat: 24:13

It's the best Like before you go to bed you just have to look at it Before you end up trailing it around the house. Like your, paintings are really big, but mine are usually small.

Lea Ann: 24:24

So I end up following me?

Cat: 24:26

Yeah, because I want to look at them all.

Lea Ann: 24:28

The time I have all sizes, yes, and my husband would be like are you going downstairs to just take another peek? I'm like it's like a puzzle. I'm like I think if I just look at it one more time I can take it. Do we know you're?

Cat: 24:40

doing this. Yeah, my husband's never figured it out. He doesn't know that I'm sneaking back.

Lea Ann: 24:46

I basically admire my work, it's like it's so good, I love it. That's great. Well, it sounds like you've done a lot of work on uncovering limiting beliefs and working on your mindset. What has that process been like for you?

Cat: 25:04

Well, I think for me, art from the very beginning has always been a spiritual practice. It's not just art making, so doing art is an expression of how I am learning to be who I really want to be, which of course I already am, but I'm always evolving, so I'm always awakening to a higher version of me. So art making is just an expression of that. And also teaching other people how to do collage is an expression of that, because I'm trying to help other people trust themselves that they do know how to do this.

Cat: 25:43

One thing really nice about my form of art collage is that it's very forgiving. Not that painting isn't. I mean, I do painting too, but I'm painting collage papers to go into collage. I think that it opens the door to a lot of people who think they can't be an artist because you don't have to know how to draw or paint. You can be really sloppy. In fact that's even better in my abstract collage thing. So that's kind of a sidetrack. But to me it's all kind of nurturing this, nurturing this inner sense of who you really are and where you wanna go with your art and you're being. You're being, my being and my art are the same thing.

Lea Ann: 26:28

They're not really acceptable. Well, that's a good segue to this question that I had for you, because you have a large community of collage makers that you work with, and do you, how do you help someone who maybe has never created to feel confident, to take that first step?

Cat: 26:49

Well, that is really why I developed this, my main course, which is collage story, which is how do you almost trick your brain into entering into the process of tearing up paper. So, my, this is how I've done it for myself and how I help other people do it, which is first you kind of quiet your mind and take it out of I'm making art and instead I am going to just make collage papers, which means you just throw paint around because in different colors. So that's really the beginning of it for me is how can I help someone just have fun making papers? It's not like you're a child, it's like finger painting. So, and I try to make that really playful, Like this is just you're just making, you're basically making paint but you're putting it on paper.

Cat: 27:42

And then I help people make really teeny little collages, Like everybody can make a two by two. And then we trick our brains by going three by three, and then we go four by four, and then we go five by five, six by six, eight by eight, 10 by 10. And before you know it you have a big piece of work, but by doing it small and learning kind of basic, really basic principles of value and color and design in two by twos. It gets people to realize really quickly that they really do know how to do this. And then you just grow it an inch at a time until you've got a larger piece of work.

Lea Ann: 28:21

Yeah, that's great and yeah, the stakes are low when it's teeny tiny.

Cat: 28:26

That's a really good point of putting it. There is no stakes, and especially if you're putting it in a sketchbook. So I start everything in a sketchbook and then, once you get your confidence in a two by two, okay, let's make a four by four. But out of a sketchbook it's kind of like it's constantly working with our brain that wants to derail us and say you don't know how to do that. But you just did it as a two by two, you can do it as a three by three.

Lea Ann: 28:50

You can do it as a four by four.

Cat: 28:51

You're just getting a little bit bigger pieces of paper as you go.

Lea Ann: 28:55

Yeah, you know it's funny because, like this is one of the foundations of coaching is that you have an idea and you have this goal. So you look towards the goal and you're excited about it. You're like I can't wait to get started. And then your brain goes oh, wait a minute, you don't know how to do that big thing out there. And so that's where a lot of people stop. They're like, oh, I had this idea, but now I can't do it, because instead of taking like the next right step way back here at the starting line, they go way to the finish line and try to figure that out. But you're helping them with just the next right step, which is beautiful and so smart and it builds confidence. And then you have this evidence that you can do it and you can rely on that evidence of your past experience and it's great.

Cat: 29:43

Exactly it. Yeah, it's the same thing as your process of coaching. You're right.

Lea Ann: 29:49

Yeah, that's great.

Cat: 29:50

Build on little, tiny steps as opposed to trying to make a large piece of artwork right away. Yeah, someone emailed me today and they wanted me to critique their work and I'm. So that's something I'm resistant to doing, because how do I know if your work is good or not? I can tell you, I can give you suggestions on what might make it stronger, but my opinion about what you think, where your work is going, I think holds people, would hold people back, because then you're not actually just following what sounds like fun or where you wanna go with it. So art, I mean, how many artists, how many artists work have we seen that we hate, and they're firm and they're in galleries and museums.

Cat: 30:43

So people that are doing art that is either good or bad, as we matter, it's their own evaluation of it. It could be, in other circles, amazing work. They have to just keep doing it until it does well, I should say. I think people need to do it from a place of joy. That's the main thing, like if you can keep doing what you're doing, even though it may not be the most skilled work. Eventually it becomes skilled work, but you just keep doing it and you do it, and you do it and you do it and eventually it becomes something that has your voice at least, and I would say you've always had a voice, you've always had a message to tell other people. Just take a little bit of time before you know you have it.

Lea Ann: 31:28

Yeah, you have to use your voice in order to know it.

Cat: 31:31

Yeah.

Lea Ann: 31:32

For it to become clear and it changes. Like you said. Yeah, I tell you what. There is nothing more soul crushing in college than a critique Like when you. I was just like, oh my God, this is the worst. So you went to art school. I did way back when yeah, I mean, I don't know that I use. I mean there's probably some foundational things that I use in my work now, but yeah, I mean, it was not for the faint of heart, that's for sure.

Cat: 32:03

But I didn't go to art school. I'm glad I didn't, just because of all the stories of friends who did you know it? Actually remember the you know the jealous curator. Yeah, yeah, her story is. You know that she was basically had a negative critique and it kept her from art. Yeah, to the days.

Lea Ann: 32:22

Oh gosh, yeah for sure. And I mean it's someone in a position of power basically saying it's no good and I guess that's okay. I don't know. I mean it's a very. I guess, looking back, I wonder. It's probably no different than if you're an accounting student and the professor saying your formulas are wrong. It just feels so much more personal.

Cat: 32:48

I think it's different. Yeah, if you're wrong, there are rules in the world that we do have to follow. We have to follow the tax laws and counting rules and how you add things up, but when it comes to art, there's a zillion expressions of that.

Cat: 33:03

Yeah, I've seen collage artists that I just worship and other collage artists that are in museums that I think are awful, although I respect all their work because I'm the brave, the bravest work that is so unconventional. I think that collage in particular is something that anyone can do. It's a matter of are you willing to try and experiment and play? That's why I try to come from in the classes I teach. This is just like a child. You're doing finger painting again. How do you do this and stay in that place as much as you can of non-evaluation and joy, as opposed to, I'm trying to make something that's good, that makes sense, that other people are going to like.

Cat: 33:47

If you make art from that place, more likely you're not going to make great art. It's going to be really hard to make, or, at the very least, you won't make art that you feel connected to or the game you played as you made it. It's me. Why are you doing it If it doesn't give you some kind of feeling that, oh yeah, I like this, it's fun. You want to trail your art all around the house with you.

Cat: 34:07

Yeah, exactly, you want to go back in your studio and sneak down.

Lea Ann: 34:11

Yeah, yeah, and I think that being a beginner at something, like from an earlier conversation, it keeps our brains young and healthy. I think it's good for us to always pursue being a beginner at something I think I don't know. That's why I talk to my husband about it. I'm like we have to keep our brains young and nimble. And what are we going to do? And take our Omega 3s or 6s or whatever we're supposed to enter?

Cat: 34:37

Yeah, I can't take a lot of Omega 3s too.

Lea Ann: 34:42

Yeah, yeah, 3s, that's right. So are you doing the 100-day project this year? Have you done it before?

Cat: 34:48

Yeah, Actually, I did 365 days. So back in another time in my life, when I was still in a corporate job like 2016, not doing any art because I was traveling nonstop around the country, I made this pact with myself that I was going to do an hour a day. I think it was 2016. So every day an hour, and I found that pretty easy to do, so I would just get up an hour earlier or I'd fit it into some time in my day and I would write it on a calendar. So every day I had an hour, but usually that hour turned into two or three hours because once I got in, I was in, the hard part was started. So I kept it going for a year and 365 days I counted the hours I was doing, not just the days, and ended up being double that. So something like almost 800 hours is what I actually put in in a year while working a corporate job, and that actually propelled me out of my job by putting a consistent practice into play.

Cat: 35:53

It was interesting because I'm in a similar place now where I'm not doing any art and really sad about it, and so I was thinking about this 365 days I spent. I said an hour a day sounds excessive. Right now there's no way I can fit an hour of fart in, and I think most people would feel that way. It's like where are you going to find an hour to do that? That's why I came up with 15 minutes. It's probably more like 30, but it just doesn't feel intimidating. I can do as long as I think it's 15 minutes, even though my people want at least I'm doing it Absolutely. I'm too busy and this is it. My schedule is overflowing. I'm not sure how long I'm going to get it all done, but I got my 15 minutes. Basically, it's like making myself the priority, as opposed to all of the art business a priority. That's the priority too, but it's not as important as me doing the work at myself.

Lea Ann: 36:50

Yeah, I think so too, that was me last year really working on the business, and I mean, by the end of the year I was like I'm bummed, this is bumming, and I had to really flip how I was thinking about my business and just how I was looking. I'm still in the process of kind of reconfiguring things, but I had to make my personal art making a priority again and it's just great, so great.

Cat: 37:19

Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure where and how. Yeah, you got to make it part of a ritual to me. Yeah, oh, me too.

Lea Ann: 37:26

You got to schedule it in, otherwise it doesn't happen it doesn't happen, and I had to let some things go too, or I am letting some things go. So, 100-day project this is the first year I'm going to do it. What are you doing I'm threatened to do? Well, I haven't. I'm very close to landing on something and it's going to be collage, because I love collages. So I incorporate a lot of collage work into my work and I have to really simplify. I have a tendency to want things to be a little too complicated, so I'm really trying to simplify what that is. So, yeah, I'm excited. Do you have any tips for me?

Cat: 38:02

Make it small. Do some things small every day. That's my only tip because I'm kind of I'm on day 13 or day 12. So I started early because the official. I mean I'm sure this interview will come out after it's already started. Yeah, 100-day project starts February 18th.

Lea Ann: 38:20

Which is a week from today. Right, Wait, today is the 12th. I think it starts Sunday. Yeah, so almost yeah.

Cat: 38:29

So I just couldn't wait until then. I just had you know once I had a hankering of what I wanted to do.

Lea Ann: 38:37

I was in. Is it a theme of or is it just 15 minutes collage? That's your theme.

Cat: 38:46

My collage is I have a little sketchbook that's four by four and so I just fill up one page of that sketchbook every day with scrap. So I have and I kind of do, you know, with collage in general, I have guidelines for a collage, so this collage is going to have. So I'll say today's collage was all neutrals, so I just pulled out all neutral papers. You can, you know, 15 minutes to make a neutral collage. Yesterday it was blues and neutrals, you know. So I just go for whatever kind of sounds like fun.

Cat: 39:16

I have this kind of goal that I'm actually going to get this big, huge box of papers. Well, I have three boxes of papers. I've got cools, neutrals and warms that are all scraps. I have this vision that I'm actually going to get this box down. I don't think that's actually going to happen. It's really hard to get rid of scraps. It takes forever. You know when you're using a little tiny bit, but it is, I mean in the first. Well, I think it's just 12. It's a hoot, you know. Making something small just for yourself, yeah, I don't know, I can't imagine what is?

Cat: 39:48

it going to be like at 100? You know, when I did it before, I wasn't producing necessarily. Here are 100 collages. I was doing just make 100 days and I had no accountability. There was no. I wasn't doing part of a 100 day project, I was just doing it for myself. So it's different. I don't. I don't know what a 100 little collages would look like. I know.

Lea Ann: 40:09

I've seen a big thing all together.

Cat: 40:14

I do too. I love these look-throughs. You know a little collage. So you're thinking about doing collage?

Lea Ann: 40:21

It's going to be collage, it's going to be four by four. I've laid on that, so I'm getting there. It will be botanical or floral. I just have to really limit my steps because I can get pretty intricate. So that's kind of I'm trying to work that part of the puzzle out.

Cat: 40:41

I might bring you right now. What can you actually do for 100 days? Are you going to do it on little four by four substrates? Are you going to do it in a sketchbook?

Lea Ann: 40:49

I think I'm going to do it on paper that may go onto a substrate. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's kind of where I am.

Cat: 40:55

I'll play a smile. It's like wow, 100 botanicals or 100 florals, Mm-hmm, Four by four. That would be pretty cool.

Lea Ann: 41:03

I know that's where we are. Yeah, I'm pretty excited about it actually. So do you ever feel overwhelmed in your work and if you do, how do you coach yourself or counsel yourself through the overwhelm?

Cat: 41:18

Oh goodness, yes, all the time I think I coach myself every single day. Every morning, I put down in my journal a statement of how I'm going to be in my day, because it's very easy for me to push through my day, because running an art business is running a business. I've got a zillion things on my list, including talking to you. Yeah, there is a million to do list. See, you see this little thing here, right here I have a what this is called a task tower, ooh, and I put little pieces of paper of every little task that I'm going to do. This top basket, by the way, is all the things I'm going to do today, and what I do is I pull the next one out of here and it tells me what I'm going to do, and so what it does is it keeps me focused on this task compared to a to-do list. So when I have a to-do list, I'm looking at the list and I'm freaking out.

Cat: 42:12

I have a spreadsheet of everything that still has to get done for Colise Joy from my class I'm teaching, but when I look at it I feel overwhelmed and silly. It's like looking at the whole thing. It's like, instead of this morning, I actually looked at my long list. I said, ok, what has to really happen today? And I put it on a little piece of paper one by one, and I do put them in order. So I put them in the order. That makes logical sense. But then all I look at is the one I just picked out of the basket. There's other levels of my basket, by the way. These are the things that really need to happen by the end of the week. They're not in my priority basket. And then I've got a whole bunch of stuff that I really think need to happen.

Cat: 42:53

I don't know sometime in my lifetime. I mean I can't look at it all together. That's how I get over, that's how I manage it, because otherwise it's. I'm jumping from thing to thing Like I got to do this and that, and then I'm like I'm panicking. The word panic I've never had. I've never been in panic in my life until I started my art business. So the last two years it's like OK, I've got to do Facebook ads, I got to do, I got to do Pinterest. I mean there's so many things. It all feels important too, and it is. It all is important. It's just a lot of women shows. You know, I've got a VA, I've got a couple, I got a little bit of help, but they're not taking the bulk I'm taking almost all of it.

Cat: 43:37

So, yeah, yeah, one thing at a time. That's my philosophy.

Lea Ann: 43:42

Well, so your, your task tower. That's what you called it right? I read that down. So just so I understand. So the first, the top level, is today.

Cat: 43:51

Right.

Lea Ann: 43:52

And do you limit the number of things that you'll put in there, or I try to be realistic about what.

Cat: 43:56

What do I think really can happen? I rarely get through my top basket. Ok, look, so these are how I've got five pieces that. I haven't done yet, and what time is it? It's almost five o'clock, so. But you know, I also have the word walk. I mean, you see this, I have the word walk in here. I have to remind myself to do self care. So there's a couple of things I do for my physical health Walk is one of them, but I have to.

Cat: 44:20

when that little piece of paper comes up, I go do it, because that's our whole week.

Lea Ann: 44:25

You know, and you said a timer or anything, so you check it at a certain time. I'm fascinated by this. Can you tell?

Cat: 44:30

OK, no, no, no, no timer. It's more like OK. So as soon as you and I finish talking, I'll go OK.

Cat: 44:36

What's the next thing on the task tower? Oh, I have to film something. Look at that. I got to film something for my class, ok. So then what happens is I put that in front of me because my computer is right here and, ok, that's all I got to do and I'm going to do. It's one thing, and I'm going to do that until that thing is done, and the fact that I've got four of the things in this basket. They weren't going to get done, but they'll go. You know, there are pieces of paper, so, yeah, it's very gratifying, by the way. So once I finish this one, I got a whole pile of these. I've already got to see how much I got. I got a pile of like seven things I've done. So tomorrow morning. So tomorrow morning I go through my little pile of things I did the day before and I sort them out.

Cat: 45:16

So I'm going to trash because I've completed them, but other ones go right back to the top basket because they're recurring things, like you have. I answer emails. That's what happens every day, but it's a it's a task. So, it helps me to focus on the task that's right in front of me. That is actually a really big question, leanne, because that was it. It takes a long it's taking me a long time to, because I do get overwhelmed, yeah, by the list. The list drives me absolutely crazy, yeah.

Lea Ann: 45:48

I'm with you on that.

Cat: 45:49

I want to do it all. Mm hmm, and I will do it all, Assuming that's. The beauty about a task tower is that the things that really aren't meant to get done they just hang out in the middle basket. You know it's okay. Yeah, the things that really have to get done are getting done. It's just so unrealistic about what I actually physically can get done.

Lea Ann: 46:12

Well, and it's probably doing something neurologically like your brain, like knowing that it's in that second tier. It's kind of taken it out of that like hamster wheel of like I gotta remember. I gotta remember Exactly, right, it is odd.

Cat: 46:28

If this basket, the middle basket, will get taken care of, because that's high enough priority that it will happen. But it is like as soon as they come up with an idea. You know, when you come up with an idea, typically you put on a to-do list. Yes, well, I'm doing the same thing. It's just not going on to-do list, though. It's going on a little piece of paper. Now, by the way, I do have a master to-do list. It's very, very, very less of everything that has to get done, but I use that to generate this. I just don't want to look at it oh absolutely so.

Lea Ann: 46:54

that's like your master list.

Cat: 46:56

I have a master list, yeah, and then I have a list of priorities hanging on my wall of you know, these are the 10 projects I've got to get done this year, but they aren't broken out by little, yeah.

Lea Ann: 47:08

For sure? Yeah, because every big project has a million little tasks.

Cat: 47:12

Exactly, they are overwhelming. Yes, they are overwhelming.

Lea Ann: 47:18

Well, it sounds like you've created a system for yourself that works really, really well.

Cat: 47:22

I have, I think I have-I need to do a whole class on it.

Lea Ann: 47:25

I mean I tell you, sign me up. I know I got to the task tower. Task tower course. Yes, create your own task tower. Yeah, that's great, that's really great. Does the isolation of our work ever bother you and if so, how do you handle it?

Cat: 47:42

You know I'm surprised it doesn't. I actually love being isolated, and when COVID happened I loved it even more. I am now grateful that I'm not isolated like that. Yeah, but I really do love every day coming into my studio all by myself. My husband partially works at home and I hate those days when he's at home. And it's not that I adore him and I loved him being here all during COVID, but I love the solitude of having my own thing. This is my world. I let you into it for a short amount of time, but I don't know how about you? Do you like isolated or not? I love it.

Lea Ann: 48:24

Do you? I often say I enjoy the pleasure of my own company just a little too much, like I have to make myself go out and I have to-. Yeah, me too. Yeah, do things with friends like a lunch or you know, because often like, okay, I have not been out as much as I know I can not put my foot out the door during summer.

Cat: 48:44

I do, but you know, in these long cold months I mean it could be weeks that I don't put my foot outside and I'm like. So I actually that's one of my 10 things for the year is I want to have at least three or four conversations with a woman friend by phone every week, and that's a task it goes in the bucket. And another one is I want to have some kind of physical contact, like lunch. Tomorrow I'm having a mani-pedi with a very good friend. Oh, that's great, but I need to schedule these weekly or they're not going to happen.

Lea Ann: 49:17

Yeah, Because I'm too busy.

Cat: 49:18

My task tower, you know, has kept me busy. It is a task master tower.

Lea Ann: 49:23

Oh my God.

Cat: 49:27

I always say that I have the meanest boss During launch season, which is what this is. I'm launching courses. I mean, I work 10, 12 hour days, seven days a week until I'm done, because there's no one else to do it. Yeah, yeah. So, it's really important.

Lea Ann: 49:44

Yeah, Sometimes I have to remind myself to be a really that I'm a great employee, but I could be a nicer boss.

Cat: 49:53

Oh yeah.

Lea Ann: 49:55

Yeah, I know, I'm not the worst. I know it's a lot. Well, the walk probably. I mean, I think, as we said, it's like the gloomy, as rainy as day. So my guess is, the walk might not happen today, unless you're one of the brave souls that will bundle up and walk anyway.

Cat: 50:10

You know, you live in Atlanta, I live in Charlotte. There is no way I'm going outside. To me, this is cold, I'm pleasant and I do have a treadmill, but I spend the winter on a treadmill. I don't know what's going to happen this afternoon, though. I have a lot to do. Yeah, I got my tasks. I got a couple more tasks, but walking is in the basket, so we'll see. Yes, it'll happen.

Lea Ann: 50:33

Well, I love having this conversation with you. What do you want to share with people? Where can they find you? What do you have going on?

Cat: 50:43

Well, people can find me on my website, which is CatherineRainescom.

Lea Ann: 50:46

Also on.

Cat: 50:46

Instagram which is catrainsartist, and I also invite people to kind of check out like my form of collage and helping people find themselves in the collage with a free five day class I have which over 17,000 people have gone through in the last year. Wow, it's called collage kickstart, so that's you know, it's a five day self-directed course that you really learn how to collage and then that's kind of an intro to other things I do. But that gives you a good people, good, good taster of what collage is and if I'm somebody they want to learn from because, you know, not all teachers are for all people.

Lea Ann: 51:27

Yeah, yeah. Well, I'll definitely link to all that. Yeah, this has been a delight.

Cat: 51:32

Same here. I'm so glad to connect with you because I know I've known of you but not, yeah, you've never actually chatted before.

Lea Ann: 51:40

I know Well. I would happily be on your list of people to chat with in your top tier task list.

Cat: 51:49

Oh, put you in my basket.

Lea Ann: 51:51

Yeah, this has been great. Thank you so much, it's been a delight.

Cat: 51:55

Thanks, Leanne.

Lea Ann: 51:56

Thank you so much for listening to Mind Over Medium podcast today. If you found the episode inspiring, please share it with a friend or post it on social media and tag me on Instagram at Leanne Slotkin, or head to my website, wwwleannslotkincom. To book a discovery call to find out more about working with me one on one. You can also head to my website to get a great tool I've created for you to use when planning your own online launch of your artwork. It's an exercise I've taken many of my coaching clients through and it's been very helpful. It's my way of saying thank you and keep creating.