STORY OF AN ARTIST

This is my very first artist's blog, so I would like to welcome you to my site and tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Kathryn L Novak. I am a fine art painter, children's book author and illustrator and a graphic designer as well.

I have been a creative individual my entire life. I began painting in my youth. Over the years I have expressed myself creatively through artwork, sewing, needlecrafts, cake decorating, candy making, cooking and more.

Eventually my desire to paint was put aside and became less of a priority in my life. Something I told myself I would revisit when I had more time.

Much later, my brother pushed me to write a book for children by telling the story of difficulties I encountered as a child, and how I eventually overcame them. Perhaps I could help children facing the same challenges by arming them with knowledge I took me years to discover on my own.

And believe it or not, the writing of this positive children's book brought me back to painting with a combination of excitement and devotion that I had never experienced before. It took me six months to paint 52 illustrated pages for my first book. By the time I finished illustrating my second and third books, I realized that what I loved most about the books was creating the artwork. I finally understood what people meant when they said, "find your joy!"

Today, I paint daily, my artwork is the priority in my life. I attempted to express my feelings with the statement in my artist's bio that reads, "I don't paint to live, I live to paint. I believe my work speaks for itself. It is my hope that it speaks to you as well."