Meet Kate Hickman | Full-Time Artist & Small Business Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kate Hickman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kate, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I graduated from college with the class of 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic. Companies simply weren’t hiring for new positions, and if they were, the competition was high from the unemployment rate. As rejection after rejection piled up, I took a break from disheartening job applications and started making art again. One viral video on TikTok was all it took, and I realized that I could actually do this. That was when I started taking it seriously.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve been making and selling my artwork on and off since I was sixteen or so. It took me a very long time to find my style, and when I say a long time I mean that I only truly found what I loved to create about a year or two ago. When art is your job, it’s so easy to focus on making what other people want, and so I very quickly lost myself and what I wanted to do.

Before the pandemic changed everybody’s plans, I was planning on moving out west and doing a road trip with all these National Parks along the way. Clearly, that plan got squashed, and so to cope with this major event that was putting the whole world on hold, I tried to focus on what life would be like after. This birthed the National Park Series, where I painted all the National Parks that I wanted to visit. I just finished this series a month ago, and now I’m starting the grand adventure of finally being able to visit those parks. That series was really what gained me traction on social media, and so many others were in a similar position that I found a lot of friends along the way.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My parents have been my anchor and my support system throughout this entire process. They let me live at home with them for a year while I felt my way through making this a full-time gig, and my dad was actually the one who suggested that I start selling my work when I was much younger. My siblings are such team players too, and they take part in all my mini focus groups and help me make this dream a reality.

Website: katehickmanart.com

Instagram: katehickmanart

Youtube: katehickmanart

Other: Patreon: katehickmanart