PK 025: Cat Lavery on Launching Your Art Career With Kickstarter Campaigns and Passion

The Filmography of Guns T-shirt Design By Cat Lavery

“I  realized that becoming a successful artist was not just a dream – it was something I could actually make happen.”

After graduating with a Masters in Architecture from Glasgow School of Art and moving to the United States from her native Ireland in 2011, Cat Lavery was looking forward to a long and fulfilling career as an architect.

She’d always loved the creative process and making art, and she hoped to able to develop these skills further while working on all kinds of interesting projects.

However, as she settled into her new role, she increasingly found herself stuck in the office or on construction sites rather than pursuing her true love of creativity and exploring new and original concepts.

That’s when she first started thinking about becoming a full-time artist and devoting her career to what really made her happy.

She started making art in her spare time, investing around $400 in a printer capable of producing high quality reproductions of her work.

Then, before she left for the office each day, she would pack her creations into cardboard tubes ready for posting out to people who’d bought them.

As time went by, Cat realized that becoming a successful artist was not just a dream – it was something she could actually make happen.

So, on the eve of her 26th birthday in 2013, Cat decided to make the move. She handed in her notice at work, set up her website, and began looking for ways to finance her work through Kickstarter campaigns and get it out there to as many people as possible.

She’s currently working on her Filmography series – a body of work inspired by famous films and TV shows such as Breaking Bad.

In this Podcast, she talks about making the transition from an unfulfilling career to becoming an artist. Along the way, she also offers lots of useful about for any aspiring artists out there who want to pursue their dreams.

Listen to this week’s show and learn:

  • Why artists can also be entrepreneurs
  • Why setting up your art business needn’t be expensive
  • How to start making art and build your audience through social media

People on this Episode:

Mitch
Cat

Mentioned in the episode:

Cat’s Website
Cat on Facebook
Cat on Twitter
Cat on Instagram
Cat on Pinterest

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Thanks for listening to our show! We’ll be back next Wednesday morning 8AM EST.

Cheers,

Mitch

PS, there is also Pencil Kings content on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.