My interview with creative Katherine Greer, visual artist and singer-songwriter
Visual artist + singer-songwriter Katherine Greer on creating art that conveys love, finding inspiration spontaneously from life and nature + persisting through the difficult moments in creativity
In this episode, I interview Katherine Greer, known as Katie, a visual artist from the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County, California. Katie works across multiple mediums including oil painting, charcoal, soft and oil pastels, and pencil work, and she also writes songs and stories.
Her driving purpose for creating art is to give viewers the feeling of love – she wants people to see and feel loved through her work, or to have an attachment to a piece that brings back good memories. She describes her creative process as very sporadic, with ideas coming to her unexpectedly – sometimes in dreams, sometimes on walks in nature, sometimes just spontaneously deciding to paint someone like her friend Neda. Katie opens up about the challenges of maintaining a creative practice while raising children and how she’s had to put her creativity on the back burner because her life isn’t currently an art-giving lifestyle. She explains that her ideal routine involves being alone with her thoughts in a quieter space, settling into the right mental state, because creativity has to come organically – you can’t force it when you’re too overwhelmed, depressed, or not mentally there.
Her inspiration comes from life itself, from everyone she’s met, from music (like when she drew Paul Simon because she couldn’t attend his concert), and from missing home. Katie offers beautiful advice about listening to yourself and never giving up on your creative calling, even when others question you or when you hate what you’re creating. She describes every piece as being like a relationship – sometimes loving it, sometimes wanting to tear it up, but knowing there will always be light at the end where you and the piece agree with each other.
Katherine Greer, Visual Artist/Singer-Songwriter
Interview with Katherine Greer
Introduction
MD: Hi Katie. Do you want to start by introducing yourself and where you’re from, with your name and where you’re from?
KG: Sure. So, I go by Katherine Greer in the artist world, but my friends and Meg call me Katie. I’m from the Santa Ynez Valley, in Santa Barbara County, California, which is in the United States of America, on the world.
MD: Tell me a little bit about what your creative discipline is or disciplines.
KG: Oh, my creative disciplines. Okay.
MD: What do you like to do creatively?
KG: Okay. Thank you. Because I wasn’t really sure what that question meant exactly. Okay. So, what I love to do is the whole purpose of why I make the art that I make is because I want to give to the viewer the feeling of honestly love. And if they can feel that in my artwork, I feel like I’m doing what I meant to do.
And it’s more of an emotional thing for me than anything because while I’m creating, I’m putting a lot of myself into the pieces. And I’m a very emotional person, as everybody has come to probably realise during this residency. And so it’s my gift to if a person can see and feel loved and feel just like, or maybe they have an attachment to the piece that makes them have a good memory even.
That’s what I would say.
MD: So, thinking about what you do creatively, like obviously we’re in here in your art studio, where you’ve got these beautiful oil paintings. You’ve also got some, what do you call it?
KG: The white charcoal, white charcoal pictures and pastels.
MD: And all of those pencils.
KG: Yeah, pencil work. I have soft pastels, oil pastels, charcoal, pencil, oil paint.
MD: So, you’re a visual artist and, I know because I’ve heard you, you also sing beautifully and you write songs. Are there other things that you do as well creatively?
KG: I do really like writing in general. I just, I like to, my thoughts go to like, maybe if I’m on a walk or something, a story might come out of it. And then so, yeah, I do like writing.
Creative process
MD: Tell me a little bit about your creative process, like where your ideas, you know, when you go from idea to a finished thing, like what is your process?
KG: Yeah, so my process is actually very sporadic. I actually have no idea what I’m going to do and it just will come to me. Sometimes it’s in a dream. And then it’s like, I have to do that. That’s exactly my next piece. And sometimes, like I said, I could be on a walk.
Nature definitely has a big influence on my work. And I could be outside, just especially here, when I’m alone in my own thoughts, it’s just kind of sporadic. And it’s like, I’m going to do that.
I’m going to do an oil painting of Netta. And that’s what I’m doing now. I don’t even know where it comes from. But there it is.
Creative routine
MD: What about your creative routine? So here, but also when you’re back at home, like what is what is your routine?
KG: Like, when I go back home, what will it be? Because honestly, I’ve had to put my creativeness on the back burner because my life is unfortunately not an art giving lifestyle at the moment. But if I can, my routine would be, well, I have kids, so I kind of have to be alone in my space to do my work in solitude, or at least if I’m around people, a more quieter space. So, it would be, my routine would be probably having a tea and being alone with my thoughts and what am I going to do today and getting to a settled state. Because definitely your mind has to be in the right place in order to create.
I’m sure everyone is that way, I believe, or else it just it doesn’t flow. And it’s not. It’s not right.
You just know, today is not a day that I’m going to create because I’m not there mentally. Or it could be a depression, or could just be like you’re too excited. You’re there’s just too overwhelmed so the creative process is kind of, it’s kind of poetic in itself. Because it has to come organically, so to speak.
Creative inspiration
MD: Who or what inspires you creatively?
KG: You know, it’s really hard to put that to just one or a few individuals. But honestly, my life, like just life in general, everybody. It’s a collaboration of everyone that I’ve met.
That’s before, after, now. The things that I’m sure that I see influences on, music is definitely a big one of them. One of the pieces I recently did was Paul Simon. And it was because I couldn’t go to his concert that night in LA. And so, I did that piece in his honour, just like, okay, I can’t be there. But I’m here with him right now because I’m drawing him.
So definitely an influence kind of on the spot, Netta [points to painting behind her]… and this is my home [gestures to another painting]. I was missing it. So, I did that.
Creative wisdom
MD: If you were to be having a chat with someone who is just at the beginning, like the very tender beginning of wanting to explore their creativity, what is the piece of wisdom or pearls that you would want to share with them?
KG: I would say, listen to yourself. If this is really what you want to do, then never give up on that. Because even if there’s people that say, hey, you know, what are you doing? No. If that’s what’s within you, then you have to gift yourself with that and not stop. And there’s going to be times, because there’s times in every single piece that I do where I absolutely hate it.
I’m like, what am I doing? This sucks. But you have to get past that. And then there’s this light at the end that goes like, okay, it’s not as bad as I thought it was. It’s like a romance.
Every time I do a painting, every time I do a piece, it’s like I’m in a relationship with that piece. And sometimes we love each other. Sometimes I just want to tear it up. But I know there’s going to be a light at the end of the road. And it’s going to come out. And we’re going to agree with each other.
MD: I love that. I love that. That’s beautiful.
Connect with Katherine Greer
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Podcast for creatives
If you haven’t discovered Creative Momentum with Meg Dunley podcast, I’d recommend having a listen. It has weekly drops of these bite sized episodes that feature creatives talking about their creative process, routine and inspiration. Each week has some great pearls of wisdom for everyone who is living or wishes they were living a creative life.
