Today, we’d like to introduce you to Karen Light.
Hi Karen, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
It all started with art at a very young age. Color lit me up, playing with materials kept me busy for hours, and spending time in my imagination was always the best time. My artistic path led to a BFA, decades spent as an Art Teacher/Teaching Artist, an MA in Cultural Management, using art for social change, exhibitions, studios, collaborations, an illustration company, and now a creative coaching company.
I love how being an Artist has compelled me to create a rich tapestry of inspiration, people, and opportunities around me, how it has helped me to transform challenges into expanding versions of myself, and how it keeps me endlessly curious about what might be next!
My purpose is to Awaken Creative Power within myself, in my work, and with anyone I meet. For many years, I struggled to believe that I could be successful as an Artist. What it took to do so felt uninspiring and exhausting, so I simply avoided it for a long time. This led me to quit many things in my life and experience a lot of burnout that was hard to recover from. Once I got support, learned to embrace the creative being that I was, and did things in a way that worked for me, I began to thrive.
Currently, I spend my days still making LOTS of art, mixed media paintings, and illustrating children’s books, as well as teaching classes and providing coaching for Creatives and Creative Businesses struggling to bring their ideas to fruition.
I utilized my extensive experience in Executive Function coaching to help them learn to work with their brains and develop practical tools to make more art happen!
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
From a young age, I was unfortunately led to believe that being successful as an Artist wasn’t likely, at least not by society’s usual standards. The message was pervasive. I can’t tell you how many times I heard things like, “It’s so cool you are an artist, but how will you make a living?”
As an Artist, I received and internalized the idea that I couldn’t possibly be a smart businesswoman. Surely that would be really difficult for me. Art and business are two different worlds. Furthermore, if you think a little bit differently – if you might call yourself neurodiverse in some way – well, that is an extra layer of “getting it wrong” conditioning.
For a long time, I played by other people’s rules, which said I could not be successful as an artist in business doing things the way I naturally wanted to do them.
Ironically, playing by those rules only seemed to prove those hideous messages I’ve received my whole life right. And, so, those rules always make me feel like I’m failing, floundering, and lost.
Through a series of breaking points, I started learning the signs of playing by other’s rules so I could pause to consider them. Some of my signs look like:
– Exhaustion. Trying to follow all the popular and latest how-to’s of business is overwhelming and tiring.
– Not spending enough time making art. Other playbooks have led me to prioritize the wrong things.
– Lack of inspiration. If my business work is not infused with my special sauce, I feel dried up and uncreative.
– Annoyed and resentful. If I am not being and doing enough of “me,” other people needing things from me makes me really annoyed.
This awareness has been helping me in the ongoing process of scrapping unhelpful, inherited playbooks of business and instead creating my own.
There are two crucial processes involved in creating my own playbook:
Firstly, I still read, listen, watch, and learn from others, but then I take ample time to DISCERN what parts I will sprinkle in and how it will have MY creative flavor to serve my desired day-to-day lifestyle and long-term vision.
The second process is remembering. I am constantly reminding myself of the way I naturally am moved to do things, the way I have naturally done things in the past before my fears let other’s rules get in the way. I remember the way I naturally used my creativity to do things differently AND effectively – the way I naturally wanted to share my work because I’m SO excited to connect and converse through the magic of art.
With these processes, I have been filling in my living, breathing playbook with rules such as:
1. Art comes first. Make ample time to create every day.
2. Set myself up to be inspired, so creating, programming, and connecting comes with more ease.
3. I consistently share my offerings, but I give myself a variety of ways to share that feel good to me.
4. Forget the box. Be the multi-passionate, talented person I am. Trust what makes me shine, not shrink.
5. Show up messy. Let go of needing it to be perfect, or all figured out first.
6. Use my support system. And support others who are in the arena.
7. Create helpful processes and systems to minimize tasks I don’t enjoy and relax my mind.
8. Do some research, but leave the final decisions to my body and heart.
9. Play, play, and play some more!
10. Change the rules whenever more truth is realized, allowing my business to evolve with me.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am very excited to say that a new body of work has been emerging. This work is being birthed from a creative form I am known for – the DOODLE!
Let me explain. About 6 or 7 years ago, I was having a hard time making my own work. I realized that in the midst of creating so much for others, I lost my own voice.
One day, on a road trip, I was so emotionally moved by the new scenery and life change that I grabbed a small little notebook and doodled something to capture it. This was so satisfying! It wasn’t my greatest work, but I had finished a piece! And that little piece meant something to me and gave me a new idea…
So I kept doing it. Almost daily. And during the pandemic, I invited other people to doodle with me in virtual doodle shops. I began sliding doodling into all my coaching sessions and teaching classes. I even launched my creative coaching company, HowDoodle.
Through the years, the spirit of those doodles has reinvigorated my art-making. My work has become more whimsical and free! The colors are brighter! The lines dance.
In this emerging body of work, I am exploring a paradox. The world, our lives, and our inner worlds can feel chaotic and confusing, and yet, when we look back, if we look through a certain lens, it can almost appear orchestrated. It can seem as if everything happened for a reason and the way it was supposed to so that we could have the moment we are in. It looks like perhaps there might be some underlying, almost invisible order to it all…
I’m exploring this by playing with lines as I dance, filling them in with layers of color. Then, it is overlayed with a beautiful structure, perhaps one found in nature, such as the spider web or other sacred geometric shapes. In some of the works, I build or do into the material for a more dimensional result.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I have a dream of spending most of my days in a van with my partner and kitties, making art that I can show and that others can interact with! This is all in the works!
Contact Info:
- Website: soulspiderstudio.com, studiolightillustration.com, howdoodle.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenlight/
- Youtube: youtube.com/@howdoodle
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/studiolight
Image Credits
Carrie Doan and Hector Montes
