00:37.33

charukaarora

Okay, caitlinn for anyone who’s listening to this podcast. Let’s let’s begin with um who you are as Kaitlyn and can you talk? Ah um, can you talk a little bit about your work what you do so that you know we can. Godipa.

00:55.28

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah, yeah, um I ah focus primarily on drawing and painting. Um I think of myself as a Portrait artist. Um I do um I’ve been focused on drawing and painting wildlife and combined with.

01:09.98

charukaarora

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:12.91

Kaetlyn Able

Botanical elements. Um for a few years now and um, but I do think of even though they’re not non-human animals I think of them as people. Um, so yeah, yeah, a lot of um, the things that I.

01:21.98

charukaarora

Um, yeah I love that I love animals. Oh so much.

01:30.80

Kaetlyn Able

Oh I know I think so many people feel really connected to animals. Um, and I live in Montana which is in the um north american rocky mountains and so they’re all around here like those animals that I’m drawing are like.

01:32.72

charukaarora

Now.

01:49.62

Kaetlyn Able

In the woods here you know in the forests and in the mountains. Um all around me. Um, and I’m not originally from here I’m from the east the East Coast um near Boston Massachusetts and so um, the move to Montana has really inspired.

01:57.82

charukaarora

Um, yeah, yeah, yes.

02:07.78

charukaarora

How long have you been here for like when did you move.

02:08.65

Kaetlyn Able

My work. We’ve been here. Ah we moved in just after our first son was born so that was twenty Eleven we moved because he was probably yeah he was probably about ten months old I think and then.

02:19.93

charukaarora

Oh so that’s been quite a few years

02:27.65

Kaetlyn Able

So we moved and we when we first moved here. Um, we moved to the northwestern corner of the state like kind of close to Canada in a really really rural remote? Um community very tiny community and.

02:34.47

charukaarora

Okay.

02:41.42

charukaarora

Um, and why were you before that like when you were in Boston and.

02:44.21

Kaetlyn Able

Boston Massachusetts yeah, and so um and I had never lived outside of like this surrounding area of Boston before um and I moved to this this town where my husband actually he grew up there.

02:52.40

charukaarora

Okay.

02:59.10

charukaarora

Oh see that was his home done.

03:00.81

Kaetlyn Able

Um I moved their site unseen his original hometown. Yeah, so he kind of started up there and then they moved down to where we are now. Um because it was a little too rural up there for me and there was no art. There was no. There is no Arts community at all. Um.

03:08.60

charukaarora

No can and.

03:19.86

Kaetlyn Able

And so we came down to like a bigger. It’s it’s considered a city in Montana but it’s still very small like for especially in India.

03:26.68

charukaarora

Ah, you know I saw this blog I saw this blog and I saw Montana in that. Um, so I kind of I can I’m I’m starting to imagine how it looks like.

03:40.51

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah, it’s geographically a really large state but the population density is really small. Um, and so I think in our valley which is big for the state I think there’s 48000 people um, and the whole state has just over a million people. So um I love the pace here. Um I it’s a great place for our family to the kids can run around outside all day. Um, so it works for us.

04:04.40

charukaarora

Um.

04:10.34

charukaarora

Yeah, um, wonderful tell me how did you grow up while you were growing up like first I’m very curious um were you like did you have any animals around you.

04:20.74

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah I did I had like pets you know so dogs and cats. Um, but just yeah where we lived it was suburban and so people didn’t have livestock.

04:26.10

charukaarora

Okay, oh you did.

04:35.24

charukaarora

Yeah.

04:36.94

Kaetlyn Able

Um, and there were deer and things like that in the woods and like raccoons and sort of squirrels and smaller things but not like the big antlered um animals that we have here or there weren’t bears out there. Um Here. Can be kind of dangerous. You know if you go out in the mountains you need to carry bear spray. Um and out there. Yeah yeah, and there’s just a lot of wilderness and a lot of open space. So um, yeah, this is a really different. Um.

04:57.20

charukaarora

Oh Wow really.

05:11.28

Kaetlyn Able

Really different way of living from how I grew up. Um, you know I grew up in it was still kind of a small town but um, it was right next to another small town here. It’s like you have a small town and then nothing and then another small town. Yeah.

05:13.87

charukaarora

Um, well.

05:24.91

charukaarora

Nothing. Yeah so I think yeah I think like you know I grew up in a small town. But um, you know how things are like so the city I grew up in so the capital of India is just two three hours away from that. So even though it was a smaller city.

05:41.55

Kaetlyn Able

Um.

05:42.58

charukaarora

Um, it’s it’s been developing a lot and you know Iba Eva we were smaller um of course because technology wasn’t there. So the pace of um, you know development is not as fast but it wasn’t like you know, a lot of things are not available because you know logistically it was still reachable.

05:47.31

Kaetlyn Able

Okay.

06:00.25

Kaetlyn Able

Right.

06:01.30

charukaarora

There are of course places where when they’re just one small section in like you know in an area where there’s nothing around. Um, there’s so many things that aren’t possible to reach there just logistically as well.

06:14.78

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah, yeah, so that’s how I felt when we were up north and um, like growing up near Boston like my mom worked in in the city. Um, she was a lawyer and if I would have a day off of school I would go to work with her and um.

06:24.60

charukaarora

Wow.

06:30.77

Kaetlyn Able

You know we’d go. We’d do things in the city I wrote she took me to museums and plays and um, all kinds of so I had a lot of like Urban access as a kid. Um, yeah, and then so when we lived up in.

06:36.33

charukaarora

Um, oh well.

06:41.21

charukaarora

Um, yeah.

06:45.85

Kaetlyn Able

This town is called Libby and I loved a lot of things about it and I loved the nature but we came down here to Bozeman which is near yellowstone national park and it’s a tourist. Um, it’s a tourist destination and there’s a lot of art galleries and there’s a lot of really talented people in town and ah, really vibe a very vibrant arts community. So um, this has been a much better fit for sure.

07:03.36

charukaarora

Wow.

07:13.19

charukaarora

Oh ah, that’s very nice to yeah, that’s amazing. Okay, think tell me something when you moved here. Um, you didn’t expect this kind of wilderness and it was quite different and refreshing for you. Um I’m just trying to understand how did it started to impact your work and you know. What was your first reaction and what what caught your attention.

07:34.50

Kaetlyn Able

Oh yeah, well actually I have a history with Montana when I was a little girl I did a report on it. We had to choose a a state that were you know outside of Massachusetts where we lived and so I chose Montana and because my babysitter was from there and I loved she was.

07:41.39

charukaarora

Okay.

07:53.83

Kaetlyn Able

Amazing. So it was like a tribute to her and um I wrote a report on it. So then when I met my husband like many years later um and he was like oh I’m from Montana I was like is this a sign that you know because I had and my mom actually I did this report and then my mom and I traveled to here to.

07:55.40

charukaarora

No.

08:07.40

charukaarora

Ah I.

08:11.60

charukaarora

Wow.

08:13.62

Kaetlyn Able

To check it out. Yeah, so it was like a first big vacation that we’d ever gone on to someplace. It’s the it’s so far away you know the United States is so huge. Um, yeah, it’s so big so Montana and Massachusetts it’s really it’s a huge.

08:22.80

charukaarora

You it here.

08:30.45

Kaetlyn Able

Distant So It was a very exotic vacation that we’d gone On. Um so I did know what the state was before moving here. Um, and and we’d visited My Husband’s parents are here so we had visited them a few times. Um I think one of the things when we did move that I kept thinking About. Um, was the history of the place and like the the colonialism um and like the problematic history. Um, but the the history of the state is Crazy. You know there’s It’s like the wild west of you know, like the old western movies that you see.

08:55.58

charukaarora

Okay.

09:04.23

charukaarora

Of us.

09:08.86

Kaetlyn Able

From the United States um so there’s a lot of like mythology here and um, there was like you know, a lot of like criminal gangs and things. Um, yeah and like outlaws and so there’s kind of a romantic, a lot of sort of these romantic.

09:11.21

charukaarora

Okay.

09:18.40

charukaarora

Um, oh wow.

09:24.84

charukaarora

Is is this like this happens like is it for real like things like this here because I see um like even on Netflix or like you know I remember watching riverdale or something and you know they had this.

09:29.44

Kaetlyn Able

It.

09:37.30

Kaetlyn Able

Oh.

09:41.41

charukaarora

Town which is it was. It’s It’s like um, it’s script pretty interesting to see if there’s something like this out there.

09:49.52

Kaetlyn Able

Oh that this was like in the founding of the state so more like in the 18 hundreds? Yeah, so like when like settlers moved like european settlers were moving across the United States to the west and um and so like when they would set up.

09:53.45

charukaarora

Um, oh oh.

10:00.48

charukaarora

Um, yeah, yeah, yeah.

10:06.87

Kaetlyn Able

You know, start making up a town. There was a lot of like crazy behavior. Um, so it’s not like that now at all. Um, yeah, it’s a lot like calmer. But um, yeah, so just the ideas about the history. You know the.

10:08.80

charukaarora

Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

10:25.76

Kaetlyn Able

Way that like people had moved West was kind of interesting to me and I was more familiar with the history because I love history I was more familiar with bit with the history of like the northeastern part of the country and so learning about just.

10:35.81

charukaarora

Oh well.

10:44.11

Kaetlyn Able

All of the particulars out here and like all of the indigenous tribes and things that still exist today um was really really interesting to me and so I started it started to kind of show up in my work. Um, pretty soon after we moved here. Um.

11:00.37

charukaarora

How.

11:03.31

Kaetlyn Able

I was um, just like I started actually drawing some of the figures like from old photographs of the the historical figures and combining them with the floral elements and at that time.

11:12.40

charukaarora

Um, okay.

11:14.63

charukaarora

So in that figures was it like at that point also were were that animals.

11:22.71

Kaetlyn Able

There weren’t so many animals that it was mostly human people. So this was yeah so that was kind of what I was doing when we first moved here and I’d also just had a second baby. Um, so I had like these two babies.

11:24.98

charukaarora

Okay.

11:37.69

charukaarora

Um, yeah.

11:38.16

Kaetlyn Able

And so I was making really small pieces. You know they were like five five inches by 5 and um things that I could like take out when they would go to sleep and then um, you know put away when they woke up really quickly and I didn’t have a dedicated studio space at that time. But i.

11:49.67

charukaarora

Um, yeah, yeah.

11:56.10

Kaetlyn Able

I was talking to my husband earlier and he was like you always figured out some way to be making something. Um and I had left my um arts community behind in Massachusetts I had you know I was part of this local community out there. Um, so when we moved here. Everything.

11:58.91

charukaarora

You dude yeah.

12:16.50

Kaetlyn Able

Um, yeah I just started like my work changed a lot and I just started kind of playing around with new images and ideas. Um that I pulled from my new surroundings. So a lot of the plant life here.

12:27.23

charukaarora

Were you of 8 1 were you afraid when your work was changing.

12:37.50

Kaetlyn Able

I don’t think I was I think I was more just really curious I was afraid after I had my first son was this scary time because.

12:48.20

charukaarora

But I buy that time were you here we were you then? Okay, yeah yeah.

12:54.93

Kaetlyn Able

I was in Massachusetts and that that was a scary time like I I know kind of what you’re asking. You know those moments where yeah you experience fear and like who am I feelings and that was um so that was back in Massachusetts. Because I’d been making huge work on paper like enormous pieces on paper and I had a studio outside the house and then my son was born almost two months early and so it was this like really abrupt. Um.

13:23.90

charukaarora

Oh yeah.

13:25.50

Kaetlyn Able

And I was teaching a lot and so I had to call my classes and say like I just had this baby and we are in the hospital. Um, so I had a real identity crisis at that time too because I just been like.

13:37.80

charukaarora

Um, because you weren’t also prepared I think.

13:41.52

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah I wasn’t for. We did not have a crib or anything ready for this baby? Um, oh thank you.

13:43.30

charukaarora

And no not you in that sense I think like when you let’s say I think you know I and I think this happens to me a lot and I keep telling this to people around me because I’m not a person like for me change is always hard. But for me if.

13:55.33

Kaetlyn Able

Um.

13:58.92

Kaetlyn Able

Yes.

14:01.77

charukaarora

Anything anything comes too suddenly and I I haven’t prepared myself mentally and not only in the sense of physical but also talking to myself and telling myself. Okay, this is what’s going to happen I Know it’s not going to be easy I Know there’s a huge pay like you know I have to explain myself that there’s a change.

14:20.18

Kaetlyn Able

Yes.

14:21.32

charukaarora

That’s going to happen and I have to train my mind and I think every time when I know that there’s something like this is happening and if I get even a little bit of time to do that I Ah with you know I have a lot of anxiety issues I have add so it just helps me manage myself a lot more better versus if.

14:37.66

Kaetlyn Able

Yes.

14:40.88

charukaarora

Put me from one point to another um and completely like you know it’s like it just completely shakes you for me. Those situations are terrible to be terribly hard. So like when you’re moving to Montana you knew that you know it wasn’t like a one day move made that move. You knew it would be disrupting your.

14:47.00

Kaetlyn Able

Yes.

14:53.44

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah.

15:00.50

charukaarora

Regular routine will be a new way but also having a baby two month prior also having a baby in itself is like I don’t think you can prepare as much like after being a second time mother now you must know but I’m sure at the first time it wasn’t that easy.

15:00.80

Kaetlyn Able

Yes.

15:10.76

Kaetlyn Able

Um, no yes, yes, it was yeah it was really um I’m the same way and I also have eighty H D So I um I totally know change is the worst. It’s the worst.

15:25.70

charukaarora

Very yes.

15:27.99

Kaetlyn Able

Um, and I feel like I’m you know I’m 44 now I feel like I’m getting I’m finally kind of getting a little better and we even were talking as a family the other day that um this time like that my kids just finished the school year so they’re on like a three month break before.

15:37.30

charukaarora

Um, yeah.

15:46.77

Kaetlyn Able

<unk>ll go back in the fall and um, every year I’m like a basket case around this time just because it’s a change. Um, you know we’re not in our school routine and this is the first time I’ve been like ok so.

15:55.28

charukaarora

Um, yeah, yeah, um.

16:01.15

charukaarora

Let it be.

16:03.15

Kaetlyn Able

Um, because it kind of like my studio schedule then I’m like when am I going to make my art you know, but um, yeah, yeah, so those different moments. Um, you know I’m kind of I’m not very fearful I don’t have I’m really really confident in my.

16:08.21

charukaarora

Um, am.

16:21.77

Kaetlyn Able

Actual making process. So like when I have a new idea I’ll just try it I won’t um at this point it’s kind of second nature for me to know I like yeah I like um I’m really curious So when I get an idea I just want to.

16:24.53

charukaarora

Um, yeah.

16:29.37

charukaarora

Um, yeah, you like the chase. Yeah.

16:36.64

charukaarora

Yeah, likewise.

16:41.70

Kaetlyn Able

See like oh what would happen if I um did you know this sort of old Western figure with flowers all over it. You know coming out of its head and um and I don’t have to show it to anybody you know if if I don’t like it. Um, but it quickly.

16:52.57

charukaarora

Um, yeah, yeah, yeah.

17:00.25

Kaetlyn Able

Ah, yeah when I moved here. There are so many galleries here downtown. So I put like 1 of my babies in like a carrier and I just started walking through the galleries and I met one of the owners and then she started following me on Instagram and she and she asked if I could show there. Um. And so yeah I was able to quickly start having some shows here and um, you know selling work through these galleries here as I was making that new stuff so that was fun.

17:29.59

charukaarora

Okay, and tell me okay, but let’s come back circle back to the point where I asked you how did the wilderness peak your interest that’s I think what was your first conversation when it started to tweak like you know peak your mind.

17:35.13

Kaetlyn Able

He.

17:46.25

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah, like when it start Well, it’s always been in my work even before I lived here. So the things I was making back East they? Um I’m trying to think because I’ve gone through so many different.

17:49.81

charukaarora

Okay.

18:03.82

Kaetlyn Able

Bas in my work. So um, just before we moved I was making these huge um watercolors on paper and they always had animals interacting with people and they kind of were like very fairytale like so they looked a lot like illustrations. Um.

18:04.87

charukaarora

Um, yeah.

18:23.66

Kaetlyn Able

So there would be like a figure and like um fish raining down from the sky. So there were always I was always just nature has always been for a very long time even before living here has been something I was really interested in and so then when we.

18:29.63

charukaarora

Ryan.

18:39.16

charukaarora

Interested in.

18:43.42

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah, then when we moved here instead of having to find like pictures on the internet of the animals that I wanted to draw I could just like go see them. Um here. So I feel like my connection to the wilderness has deepened a lot like my real life connection.

18:58.90

charukaarora

Yeah, yeah.

19:03.18

Kaetlyn Able

And I think I always wanted a connection to it and that’s what my old work was kind of about like I wanted the connection and now I really sort of feel 1 um, like it feels like an authentic um face to face. Time with it.

19:21.45

charukaarora

Yeah, no I get it? Okay, so um, once you start getting into this work. Um, what was your first um I think in the sense of medium also did you? ah.

19:29.12

Kaetlyn Able

What.

19:35.30

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah.

19:37.65

charukaarora

Moving here impacted that for you did it because for me like you know when I moved back in the sense of partially back to my hometown and I had always I’d always been interested in fashion Materials. Always had them in my studio but never had them like never use them as much and when I came back to my hometown I realized like I started feeling a lot more connected to them and the way I was responding.

20:06.62

Kaetlyn Able

A.

20:10.66

charukaarora

Those materials were a lot more different than I was while I was in this city. So I think your surroundings also really even if you have the same material if you’re somewhere else versus if you move to a different location. They talk to you differently.

20:13.75

Kaetlyn Able

So.

20:27.66

charukaarora

Let’s let’s talk about that. Also.

20:28.29

Kaetlyn Able

Um, oh yeah, um so one of the one of the reasons why I started drawing with the scratchboard that you’ve probably seen you know the black and white.

20:41.32

charukaarora

Yeah.

20:44.48

Kaetlyn Able

Portions of my work. Um I started doing that back in Massachusetts but then I’d kind of put it away and then I think I just had it with me when we moved and.

20:55.44

charukaarora

Um, okay.

21:01.37

Kaetlyn Able

I didn’t have any space and it was really small and so it was like sheer practicality that urged me to get it out. Yeah, so the initial was just simply practical. But then um.

21:07.69

charukaarora

Um, that is nothing.

21:17.71

Kaetlyn Able

And in the beginning I was working like it was white background and I was painting and drawing black ink and then scratching a little bit so it was very white with a little bit of black and now it’s a lot of black with white and that switch.

21:32.28

charukaarora

Yeah.

21:36.26

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah, so that switch happened um I had um like that’s kind of the traditional way that Scratchboard works with the black and people scratch into the white. Um and I had another experience that um, kind of. Prompted me to start to to to do it that way I’m trying to it’s my medium’s a little hard to understand So if maybe I’ll explain that like it’s a white clay. And then you paint black ink on it and then you scratch with tools back into the black ink revealing white underneath. Um, and so yeah, and so the way that I work Now. It’s kind of like excavating.

22:16.72

charukaarora

Okay, white. Yes yes.

22:28.30

Kaetlyn Able

A little bit. That’s what it feels like to me and um, when ah but seven years ago I had breast cancer and so um, when that happened it was like very disruptive to our lives obviously um, but.

22:37.82

charukaarora

Um, lovely witness.

22:47.56

Kaetlyn Able

My worldview changed a lot and so um, yeah, and so one of the things that I kept experiencing while we were while I was going through treatments was um, just how much joy there is.

22:50.80

charukaarora

Um, yeah.

23:04.85

Kaetlyn Able

Even in like these awful moments you know like um I kept experiencing like just the amount of community that came and supported us and just how we coped and how we were able to still have a lot of fun and um, like a good time.

23:07.76

charukaarora

Um, yeah.

23:14.88

charukaarora

Um, yeah.

23:22.13

Kaetlyn Able

You know while I was getting chemotherapy. Um, and so I kept thinking about I didn’t consciously do this but I started wanting to paint the whole thing black and then carve out that light in it. Um, and so like as.

23:22.70

charukaarora

Um, nell.

23:34.35

charukaarora

Died Light I like that yellow.

23:40.61

Kaetlyn Able

The process is very meditative and it takes a really long time. Um, because I use like tiny tattoo needles to create. Um these forms and when you’re working on it. It feels like you’re slowly illuminating the form and it um. And kind of uncovering it and revealing it and so that felt like really true to how I was thinking about the world after sort of going through this experience. Um, and then the color came in because it sort of that. Those moments of like in inexpressible joy that are always kind of available even in these sort of dark darker times. Um, and so that’s kind of that’s how that arose like that was a really big switch in my Work. Um.

24:22.64

charukaarora

Um, yeah, um.

24:27.77

charukaarora

Yeah, right.

24:38.50

Kaetlyn Able

Sort of during that time and then I find more and more connections as I um spend more time with the media. So another thing that I love here is that there’s a lot of dinosaur um fossils that are found in Montana.

24:55.00

charukaarora

Um, only okay.

24:57.83

Kaetlyn Able

And we have yeah we have this museum here in town. Um, called the museum of the rockies and they have a lot of fossils and you can watch people um like excavating them. You know, like digging them out of these plaster casts and when we first moved here I was like.

25:13.62

charukaarora

Um, okay, ah is.

25:15.35

Kaetlyn Able

That’s what I want to do when I retire like I want to touch dinosaur bones. Um, and that they use like they use similar tools some like my scratching tools to like um, dig them out and so I I like that connection to like the idea of like finding artifacts.

25:23.90

charukaarora

Oh Wow yeah.

25:34.83

Kaetlyn Able

And um, how it’s like a really slow process. Yeah yeah.

25:35.35

charukaarora

Yeah, uncovering something? Yeah, and what do you think? Um, so while you make these black and white. You’re also adding life and color.

25:51.12

Kaetlyn Able

Um, yeah I love them.

25:52.13

charukaarora

And you love flowers. Let’s what is the idea I think let’s dig. Let’s dig a little deeper into because I feel like it’s a lot more than what we it looks like um and I really I Really um I Really like the idea when you you know associated with like.

26:02.56

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah.

26:11.49

charukaarora

How you’re finding light into the darkness and I think even while I am also doing a lot of my work I think a lot similar So I’m interested in knowing like you know, um how did color came into it and do you have like a reason an idea behind it.

26:17.35

Kaetlyn Able

A.

26:29.58

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah I Um I mean so part of the idea is this is pure self-indulgence is that I love to paint as much as I love to draw and so I don’t want to pick um, pick one so I figured I but can I.

26:41.35

charukaarora

Um.

26:45.32

Kaetlyn Able

Can I figure out a way for these 2 to work together. Um, but the other piece of it is that I um I really the flowers for me are all about you know they’re so symbolic. Of like how fleeting life is and how precious and how um, beautiful. It is because it is like impermanent and so I think like the beauty the beauty of that is inseparable for the from the impermanence.

27:12.51

charukaarora

Um, yeah.

27:18.14

charukaarora

Um, yeah, um, yeah.

27:18.17

Kaetlyn Able

Um, I think if we lived forever you know it wouldn’t be special So the flat that’s kind of what the flowers represent for me. Um, and then the way that I combine them with the black and white I Really like the idea of sort of these different.

27:35.41

Kaetlyn Able

Sort of different worlds coming together. Um and layering on top of each other. So um, the flowers that I paint um are all garden. You know they’re cultivated flowers. Um, and so they’re not usually not wild flowers.

27:51.26

charukaarora

And why.

27:54.81

Kaetlyn Able

Um, and so but the ah like the main subject of the piece is usually like a wild animal and so I like that I like that tension between the cultivated and the wild.

28:01.97

charukaarora

Um, yeah, um, yeah, and wild and the light and the dark. Yeah.

28:12.31

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah, and then exactly like those dualities are so interesting to me and I think that they um I like I think about the garden a lot as like a site just a. Idea of a garden in general as a site where we can connect with nature as human beings you know in so many ways we’ve like so um, pushed it away. Um and then but I think like when we when we go and replant something in the ground and nurture it. We’re touching.

28:29.10

charukaarora

Um, and yeah.

28:45.86

Kaetlyn Able

Nature or we’re like getting back to it a little bit so I like ah yeah, that’s that’s what that means to me.

28:47.30

charukaarora

Um, yeah, um.

28:52.80

charukaarora

I love that. I love that okay 1 last question before I ask you a rapid fire and let you go, you’ve come a long way like you know and but while even speaking to and I’m sure there must have been a lot more than I don’t know yet. But.

28:59.15

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah.

29:09.81

charukaarora

You know I feel like this sense of um I think when I lost my mom in the last couple of years to now I have grown um a hundred times more than I’ve ever grown in all my life and I feel like.

29:24.65

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah.

29:27.77

charukaarora

Um, experiences um loss um or traumatic experiences or anything like that really shakes you but also like it just brings you out something very differently in you that like you. It’s like. You know this meditat like it’s not meditative in the sense of that. But it’s also numbing this process of excavating something like you know life is escavating like bringing something out of you with those experiences and when as as in while you’re saying this like you know you’ve had pressed cancer.

29:46.84

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah, like.

29:57.52

Kaetlyn Able

Um.

30:02.50

charukaarora

So moving I think uprooting your life from 1 place and then you know finding base into another I don’t know if and everyone who’s done that I’ve done that so many times and ah as you speak and I think also with family a lot of things change. So I think all of these things really impact us of who we are. And and of course our work. Um, can you talk a little bit about who you were as a young artist in the sense of who was just beginning into their you know in their career to now someone who’s gone through those.

30:36.74

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah, um.

30:41.30

charukaarora

Experiences because I keep thinking like this you know I was just thinking the other day you know a couple of years later I would look at this I would look at this thing very differently and I would have this kind of urgency or the fear of missing out or like a lot of things which. Sometimes I don’t feel in a lot of places now. So um, my question. My direct question is can you talk a little bit about this evolution and who you were and um, like you know as an early as a young artist who was just getting there to now someone.

31:03.94

Kaetlyn Able

My question is in. Yeah.

31:17.58

charukaarora

Who’s been doing it for over the years has also seen shades of life and I think that really does impact you your work. Everything.

31:25.58

Kaetlyn Able

um yes um I was reflecting on this today in preparations I feel prepared. Um, yeah when I first especially I went straight from college to graduate school. And um, when I was in graduate school is very uncomfortable because I had always even from the time I was very very little um, excuse me I’d loved making things with my hands I had a deep desire to create. Um I loved.

31:44.67

charukaarora

Yeah.

32:00.29

Kaetlyn Able

Experimenting with art materials and taking art classes and I majored in art and college then I went straight to graduate school and that was like very uncomfortable because I was 22 years old and like nothing had happened to me yet. Um, and so I had this? yeah.

32:07.44

charukaarora

Um, um.

32:18.77

charukaarora

Um, yeah, um.

32:19.92

Kaetlyn Able

Desire to create but I didn’t know what to create and um and so I needed and so I flailed around in graduate school but I got through it. Okay, and then um.

32:21.97

charukaarora

Yeah.

32:34.43

Kaetlyn Able

For those first few years afterwards I was really experimenting with different media I was doing a lot of watercolor and I’d originally been an oil painter so I just kept switching media just kind of experimenting with just anything I could get my hands on. Um, and so I think those first years

32:43.89

charukaarora

Um, but yeah and meant. Yeah.

32:54.41

Kaetlyn Able

Were very experimental I think it was just very experimental artist. Um, just trying so things and um and then and the work was likes interesting but I don’t think it had I didn’t really understand what it was about.

32:54.80

charukaarora

Yeah.

33:13.79

charukaarora

Yeah.

33:13.89

Kaetlyn Able

Um, which is okay I don’t think you need to understand why you’re you know and I’m and looking back I was like I Still don’t really know what it was about um, but now I think like I’m very clear like I really understand. My work and I I I always make it from a completely intuitive space I try not to think too hard. Um, so I think to the artist that I am now I am very I have a very like defined process and. I’m very um, process oriented and before I think I was really worried about the product more um, like when I was younger and so I think now I just.

34:02.81

charukaarora

Yeah.

34:09.77

charukaarora

Um, then.

34:11.39

Kaetlyn Able

I have something to make art about you know like life and so um, like.

34:14.99

charukaarora

Yes I think I think that is in itself like yeah I think I really do agree with that. Um I think I feel one of the biggest differences is um at that point.

34:30.81

charukaarora

I Think you know it’s like you need to look for depth and you know you’re trying to digging in and you’re feeling and I feel like that depth and that’s a light that that layer insight. It’s not something that you can just dig in.

34:35.56

Kaetlyn Able

He he.

34:48.50

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah.

34:49.29

charukaarora

It’s when you go in and all these years later with all these experiences later and I just I feel like now I’m not I am really not trying I think in fact I feel I feel very completely opposite in the sense like I do not want to become I do not want to sound deep I don’t want. Like I really want to like just where I am in my life or wherever I’m feeling just connect to that and a lot of times that becomes in itself a lot more deeper because of of course we’ve matured grown into seen life. Still seeing life and that lure has only made it like you know, um I think I think as a year I think to reframe it I think as young artists as someone was just I think I would make ah my make things a lot more complex because that made me feel like you know, okay that maybe I’m truly.

35:26.48

Kaetlyn Able

Yes I.

35:37.10

Kaetlyn Able

Yes.

35:42.65

charukaarora

Doing something or doing good or doing enough and was is now the simpler the better The you know as simple as it can get I think for me that’s become like now I don’t I don’t think about how to do more and I think about how do I do this in the more simplest way. I Think that’s also changed.

36:02.00

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah I Love that I I think that your point too about um, like we don’t have to try so Hard. It’s like it just and I definitely did that too as a young artist especially in graduate school. You know like. Everyone’s asking you what your work is about all the time and um and so you are like making things up, you know I mean I was really trying to be honest, but you’re like I don’t ah.

36:22.55

charukaarora

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. But you know I think one and why I think this is um, you know what really happened let me share this fun instant.

36:38.50

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah, yeah.

36:40.42

charukaarora

And with no no, no, um, no other intention and I remember because I think I was in that place myself recently we were interviewing I was interviewing someone for um for hidings for our team and I met this really young girl and I I asked her.

36:47.55

Kaetlyn Able

I.

36:58.14

charukaarora

Um, and she was just 18 years old and she came for the interview and I ask ah you know what? um I don’t know I mean you’re pretty young. She she just she just given a twelfth exam or something and I was like why aren’t you going to college while looking for the job and all of that.

37:10.42

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah.

37:16.82

charukaarora

And to have you ever worked somewhere and so she started to my to my total surprise with so she started with the idea. Oh I have been working a lot I have a lot of experience and it took me. It took me a little you know took me by surprise and she was like oh. I’ve been the head of Edger I’ve been head of marketing and I’ve done this and I’ve done that and to me in my mind I kept on thinking. Okay when like when and I kept on asking ah like why. But when were you doing this why where were you doing this. So. You know and I told her and I I told her very like I had a very honest chat. But then I told her you know what I understand where you’re coming from I think I also understand because I’ve been there when I start in my career I feel like to get a good job or to in this competitive place wherever you feel like. To read somewhere. We have to feel like we are extraordinarily over doing so much and like but I think that is that is the first wrong thing we ever get I think and I told her you know what as someone who’s looking at you.

38:23.63

Kaetlyn Able

I.

38:28.23

charukaarora

Who probably would want to bring and work with you and bring you in our team I have nothing I I’d be more than happy I I do not have a problem with you being young I think that’s amazing because I feel like you have an amazing canvas. There are so many things that you learn now that you’ll do that you and uncover and that excites me. What is what really puts me off is that I don’t want you to while you’re even starting you to you feel the pressure that you want to you have to be someone that is truly reflection of you who you are not and I think this part is what we really like like the pressure of um. It’s not.. It’s also a lot of self-imposed pressure like but how sometimes we feel like we have to be a certain way to get ahead in life like I have to be this serious artist who’s always in the studio or this artist who really like so we have these notions on how success can.

39:07.23

Kaetlyn Able

Is.

39:25.50

Kaetlyn Able

This.

39:25.59

charukaarora

Comes what being good and bad is and I think it’s a lot more like also parenting. Ah so I have nephews and nieces now I don’t have like my own children but raising them you know with my sister in law like we keep thinking about like okay the more we tell them of it. This is good and bad. So are we telling them like.

39:38.60

Kaetlyn Able

Isn’t ah is it.

39:45.12

charukaarora

You know how a lot of complexity but also like our lives also work that way.

39:50.94

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah, yeah, that’s really interesting.

40:00.35

charukaarora

Ah, yeah I mean yeah I mean that is I think that is something that I really like about art. Um, it’s like you can have fun like you you if you choose to be even in the most serious work that you look at you can Choose. I Think it’s also like it’s art has Layers. You can go as deeper as you want in that moment if you feel like and if not, you can just look it at look at it as a beautiful piece as an absurd piece as ah as like.

40:19.56

Kaetlyn Able

This is.

40:33.44

charukaarora

It talks to you just from the place that you are in.

40:35.45

Kaetlyn Able

Yes, and I like that’s something that’s important to me about my own work is that it can just be a pretty pretty thing for somebody and that’s okay, like we need beauty. We like it makes people happy and what’s.

40:44.75

charukaarora

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

40:54.67

Kaetlyn Able

Better than that. Um, what’s that.

40:55.71

charukaarora

Um, ah were you while you were young but were you Okay, while you were young.

41:00.86

Kaetlyn Able

Oh thinking that way. Um, no I took myself very seriously. Um and I can remember my mom telling me you know one day you’ll probably take yourself less seriously and like that’ll be good.

41:05.50

charukaarora

Um, yeah, yeah, yeah.

41:18.79

charukaarora

Um, yeah, yeah.

41:20.92

Kaetlyn Able

And I was like she she’s wrong, but she was right? You know I was like 15 at the time but I yeah she was right and I think um, yeah.

41:27.53

charukaarora

Um, yeah.

41:32.53

charukaarora

Yeah I love that. Thank you so much Caitlin. Thank you so much for your time I really had a good time thinking for you I have a rapid fire for you before I let you go? Yeah a little fun before we go.

41:36.92

Kaetlyn Able

Oh thank you? Yeah me too. Yeah, oh that’s right? okay.

41:51.83

Kaetlyn Able

Okay, I’m ready.

41:51.99

charukaarora

Are you ready? Um, okay here we go. What was the first thing that made you fall in love with the arts.

42:04.95

Kaetlyn Able

Oh I’m in love. Ah, a Claude Monet show that my mom took me to at the museum of fine arts when I was 8 Yeah.

42:13.17

charukaarora

So lucky Wow Wow What inspired you to become an artist.

42:21.44

Kaetlyn Able

I couldn’t help it I was just going to.

42:29.74

charukaarora

Ah, what is the most important lesson you’ve learned through all these experience in the arts and probably if you if you feel called to as a woman in the arts.

42:42.24

Kaetlyn Able

Oh I think I Love what we were just talking about about not taking yourself self too seriously or learning how to not take yourself too Seriously Um I think but I think the most.

42:56.76

charukaarora

Um, hack Okay, go ahead.

42:59.28

Kaetlyn Able

The most important thing I learned is to um, just sit down and make something and that’s kind of the secret you know? yeah.

43:04.15

charukaarora

Yeah, oh god can never get old now I think I feel like I feel I feel like I’m tossed into these 2 personalities where one half of these like.

43:20.19

Kaetlyn Able

Um.

43:21.66

charukaarora

I Don’t care how big impact I make what I do as long as I’m living and I’m creating even little things. My purpose is fulfilled and then there is this another person in me who’s like.

43:23.80

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah, mmm. Yes.

43:35.52

charukaarora

I have this power to create and I want to create something that you know helps other people impacts other people. But I just think at the end of the day just having those little and I feel like the most um, commercial successful all of these things that you get commercial in the sense of you’re getting more work and all.

43:52.77

Kaetlyn Able

I hear.

43:55.00

charukaarora

Quiet moments of just making something for yourself in the bed or just painting a little something or making us I think it’s so much more precious than anything else we do at least to me like I Really enjoy that I really do okay my next question.

44:04.23

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah I agree.

44:13.83

charukaarora

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given by another artist.

44:19.16

Kaetlyn Able

Oh there’s so many good ones I have to just pick one I’ll just pick one real quick. Um.

44:27.92

Kaetlyn Able

The most important advice that I ever received was you just have to sit down and make a lot of things and then something will happen. That was my graduate student adviser told me to do that.

44:39.66

charukaarora

Um, oh um, oh out. Um how why what has been the biggest island for you in your creative career.

44:44.30

Kaetlyn Able

He kind of saved me from.

44:55.82

Kaetlyn Able

Early on I think well maybe the the biggest challenge has been um, maybe financial stability I think yeah.

45:07.90

charukaarora

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah I think that’s completely and I think it’s important to keep this out there because it’s really like the more real we can get to each other I think it only helps other people to plan better.

45:12.68

Kaetlyn Able

To be totally honest.

45:25.48

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah mm.

45:27.70

charukaarora

To find ways better to like you know to look for um how they can do better than people who’ve done so far. Okay, are you on early morning or late night which is your prefer time for creating oh hourly.

45:36.94

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah, yeah, early morning early morning. Um, so usually 6 but I’m trying to push it even earlier. So I’ve been.

45:49.27

charukaarora

Wow.

45:53.21

Kaetlyn Able

Just for two days though so for 2 days I’ve been getting up at five forty five. so but tomorrow I get to sleep in I come in I ah yeah, it’s just across the hall from our bedroom and so I’ll I work in here and then my kids wake up about.

45:57.65

charukaarora

And you come to come to the street Studio right.

46:05.73

charukaarora

Yeah, and yeah.

46:12.13

Kaetlyn Able

Um, an hour and a half later. So then I can help them get ready for whatever they need to do? yeah.

46:15.53

charukaarora

Yeah, um, okay, musical silences. What do you like more while you’re creating or you do okay, um, okay, 1 last question what is.

46:21.12

Kaetlyn Able

Music music. Yeah.

46:31.91

charukaarora

What advice would you give in 1 But for anyone who’s listening to this episode.

46:36.62

Kaetlyn Able

Um, 1 word patience. Yeah think.

46:38.19

charukaarora

Um, yeah.

46:42.73

charukaarora

Who that’s a good one real one I love that perfect. Thank you so much Kaitlyn before I let you go please let us know if you have something that you’re working on that you’d like to share with us any new projects anything.

46:54.44

Kaetlyn Able

Oh yeah.

47:01.37

charukaarora

That we can support you with how people can find you support you follow you Please let us know.

47:06.58

Kaetlyn Able

Oh um, yes so I’m on Instagram at Caitlin able. Um and my spelling of my name is very strange. It’s KAETLYN.

47:14.90

charukaarora

Um, a a a yeah.

47:21.97

Kaetlyn Able

And then Abel is like the word AbLE um so I do share a lot on Instagram and then I do have a website which is kaitlinabbel.com and um I have I’m preparing for shows coming up in the fall right now. So um.

47:38.36

charukaarora

No one.

47:41.57

Kaetlyn Able

Yeah, if you tune into my website. You can also sign up for my newsletter because I let collectors know when new work is coming out and I also I sell prints through my website too and also internationally through ah Etsy shop.

47:54.53

charukaarora

Love that so we link everything in the show notes and thank you for everyone who joined us and we’ll see you back in another episode and thank you so much Kaitlyn for your time I hope to see you soon.

47:56.44

Kaetlyn Able

As well. All of those links are in my Instagram yeah, it’s a lot of links.

48:10.10

Kaetlyn Able

Thank you charuka Yes, take care bye.

48:14.80

charukaarora

Thank you 1 sec.