Update #18 - Where I comfort the disturbed, work on a new collection, and decide to deal with my isolation

This is where I share what I’ve been up to behind the scenes to move my art career forward - the good, the bad, and the as-yet-to-be-determined.

How does February mange to be both the shortest month AND the longest month? I am so looking forward to Spring, and being warm and flowers and leaves on the trees!

Anyway, as bleak as the weather may have been, February was actually a lovely month in the Haus of Cats - let’s see how it all went down.

February’s Rose, Bud, & Thorn

The Rose is something that went well, the Thorn is something that didn’t go so well or is challenging, and the Bud is something that is still percolating…

ROSE

The rosiest rose this month has to be the Ex Libris finnisage (the exhibition closing party). I was so moved by everyone who came out, including some friends who flew in all the way from Amsterdam!

The attendance of one person in particular had a profound impact on me: I have a friend who works as a liason, and she is properly, actually saving the world at the moment. She does things like negotiate with the Taliban, and smuggle dissident artists and journalists out of hostile territories. NBD.

For years she’s been sending people to the US as a safe haven, and now, due to the current political climate, she’s having to scramble to relocate them to more secure locations. She’s been working all hours, long into the night, but she chose to take a break that night, and come to my finnisage for respite: “I just need art and friends and a drink”, she said.

I gave her a hug, handed her a glass of wine, and watched as she circled the room, her shoulders visibly unclenching as she took in the paintings. She stayed for a few hours and then she went back to the office, refreshed.

I firmly believe that art is vital to the revolution. That it's fundamental to our humanity. But this was such a pure demonstration of the truth of that belief, and it’s the first time I’ve really witnessed it first hand. I think I’ve felt quite guilty about not doing more to… I don’t even know - save the world? Fight the rise of facism? I’ve felt so impotent in the face of it all.

But providing respite for those on the front lines? That I can do. Bringing joy and comfort and colour into a world that feels increasingly bleak? That I can do. It reminds me of one of my favourite quotes about art:

Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. - Cesar A Cruz

Which brings me nicely onto the other rose of February - the wonderful response to the online launch of my Je Suis Wibbly Wobbly collection. Turns out there a lot of people who really relate to feeling like a misfit and many of them told me that this collection made them feel like maybe that wasn’t a bad thing. That made me very happy.

A bunch of the pieces sold, which is amazing - thank you so much if you are one of the awesome people who collect my work! - but don’t worry if you missed the launch, as I still have a few pieces left. You can find them here.

BUD

Two lovely things are budding right now - first up, I spent some time in February reaching out to potential guests for season two of the Zuzu’s Haus of Cats Presents… podcast, and OMG I snagged some corkers! I’m doing the podcast slightly differently for season two - I’m only doing audio this time round, which means I can have twice as many guests, and we can release the episodes weekly.

It’s going to be so cool and I can’t wait to share the line-up with you! I’m doing the first batch of interviews next month, and then I’m aiming to kick off season two at the beginning of June.

Secondly, I managed to carve out two solid weeks to kick off the creation of my newest collection entitled Things Men Have Said To Me Instead Of Hello. I’ll share a few sneaky peeks here, but I’m not ready to share any finished work yet. I’ll be sharing more soon so stay tuned for that!

I’ve completed three pieces so far, and have two more which are almost done. I did let a couple of close friends take a look just to make sure I was on the right track and it was landing right, and their reactions were extremely encouraging. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can share much about the collection on YouTube without being demonetised (!), but I’ll share stuff on my own channels instead.

THORN

I really need to do some work on my discovery channels when it comes to marketing. Unfortunately, in order to keep this business sustainable I need a steady stream of new people finding me, but currently all my discovery channels are pretty labour intensive (YouTube, podcast, interviews) which means I can’t be as active as I need to build momentum. I need to find something a bit faster and easier to get traction, which means I’m thinking about getting back on Substack.

I had a Substack account a couple of years ago when I first started on this adventure, but at some point I decided to leave (I can’t now remember why). Anyway, they are popping off in terms of discovery and community-building so I think I’ll copy my content over there and join in.

I’ve been feeling pretty isolated, lately. I used to have an amazing community on Instagram a few years ago (albeit around my marketing business, not my art), and I miss that sort of daily camaraderie. Substack seems to be the place to be for that, at least for the time being, so it seems to be the solution to both of those problems.

Maybe I’ll see you over there?

In other news

I was delighted to be interviewed by the wonderful Angel Sullivan over at Rooted Mystic this month - we chat about my journey to becoming an artist, neurodivergence, embracing being a misfit, and much much more. Check out the video version below, or find the episode on Spotify here.