Sure, she used to serve pancakes to unhappy customers, but those days are long gone! Today, Ekaterina Popova is a painter, the founder/editor of Create Magazine, and she’s about to become the host of her own soon-to-launch podcast called Art & Cocktails… yep, it involves drinking with artists. Works for me! The only way I was able to get Kat on my podcast was to agree to be on hers, so we’re interviewing each other today. Since it was only 9am my time, I opted for Baileys in my coffee. Yum! You can listen to all of our dirty laundry right up there under Kat’s dirty laundry, or you can subscribe on iTunes.
First, her absolutely beautiful domestic “messes”:
Gasp! Those color palettes, and don’t even get me started on the light in these “everyday” spaces. Speaking of every day… here are just a few of Kat’s daily sketches:
What!? These are just sketches?! FRAME ALL OF THEM and call it a day!!!
Sorry for the outburst. Ok, moving on… to a residency in Iceland:
Sigh, so dreamy. I truly admire Kat for not only her sense of adventure, but the hustle she puts into getting herself to all sorts of fabulous places. Grants, applications, selling work… yep, this woman makes things happen.
Oh yes, and when she’s not painting, or traveling, or both… Kat runs Create Magazine. And it’s FANTASTIC:
Look at her … like a proud mama bear with her baby {if her baby lived in a magazine shop}. I love the calibre of artists she includes in Create, the beautiful design, and I also love how much artists love being included in its pages! Most of the images above are Instagrams taken by the artists featured in the spreads. Yeah, I’d Instagram the hell out of that too! ps. I had to include Ashley Longshore‘s cover … Jesus in Guccis for the win.
And finally – this is the best – little Ekaterina in Russia doing what she was meant to do…
… and a grown-up, about to turn 30 later this year, Kat doing what she is meant to do! Destiny? I believe so. Thanks so much to Kat for doing this double interview with me {and giving me a reason to drink at 9am}; thanks to Saatchi Art for supporting this episode, and of course, thank you so much for listening. There will be more Art For Your Ear next weekend.
Other links:
- Art & Cocktails Podcast {launching soon!}
- Kat on Instagram
- Create Magazine
- Elspeth Pratt, Artist and Professor
- The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
- Janna Watson, Episode no.133
- Bunnie Reiss, Episode no.78
- Vancouver Mural Festival
- “A Big Important Art Book … Now with Women” (my new book)
- Big Important Merch! (mugs, shirts etc)
- My art site / My art Instagram
Loved the back and forth convo!
that’s the second time an aperol spritz was mentioned! i’d never had one before, but after the ashley talk, i bought a bottle. it was as good as i hoped.
What a bright shining light she is! I’ve only recently become familiar with Kat’s work and I LOVE it! And of course I love Create Magazine and am so proud to be in it! Really great double interview episode!
Great interviews! Kat mentions an art mentor now living in LA at 52:40. I couldn’t catch the name, do you happen to know who she is talking about?
hey melissa – her name is Bridgette Mayer … http://www.bridgettemayergallery.com/
Thank you!
you bet! : )
Love this. When are you guys going to come to London? We need you. Can’t wait for Kat’s podcast.
xx
My first time listening. It was ironic but informative! When I started to put myself out there writing, my first big publication was Create! ( formerly Fresh Paint Magazine) -it ended vet badly and discouraged me for a long time. It I s sad that those who start out discouraged end up perpetuating the things they initially “fought” against. Hope they are better to their writers now!
fresh paint was a partnership that didn’t end well… kat started create on her own. you should reach out to her as SHE is fantastic and i’m sure she’d want to right any wrongs you felt from the fresh paint experience : )
Thanks ladies. Really enjoyed this one. Interesting to hear about Kats transition to America. I’m really looking forward to Danielle’s book in the fall as well. Excellent!
This was a GREAT episode, loved the honesty and the positive vibes!
Danielle, I’m curious, have you in recent times gotten to confront the asshole who told you never to paint again? And also I’m assuming he’s a nobody right now (just from a karma perspective, LOL!!)
ha! no. but apparently he’s changed his ways, so that’s some good news ; )
Dear Danielle- listening to this I’m so sorry that I’m your art education you never heard about… Mary Cassatt, berthe morisot, Sonia Delaunay, Kathie Kollwitz, Louise Nevelson, Lee Krasner, etc. I’m 15 years older than you and these artists were all part of my education. Isn’t it weird that female authors (Mary Shelly, Jane Austin…) and Photograohers (Dorthia Lang, Diane Arbus) were so lauded but painters were ignored? I haven’t seen your new book yet so I don’t know if you included any “non living” female artists… Maybe your next book?!?
hi melissa – yep, 30 non-living, 45 living, and 15 projects to jumpstart the artists of the future.
Dear Danielle, I listen a lot too your podcast but in this one I recognized a lot about your story. At the age of 17 I went to art school. From a small village to the big city. Being dutch and growing up in The Netherlands you would think that the cliche is true: dutch people are free-minded, that every this goes 😉 Well no: my art teachers were all men…old men. I had no references to female artist, the best they came up with was indeed Frida Kahlo. They told me I could not paint, that I should stop drawing women. That my work was pornographic, that I should stay away from anything that had the word “feminist” in it and so on. Until this day (I’m now 37 years old) I sometimes struggle with myself that I am aloud to draw the things that I do and at the same time preaching that women can do anything these days. It is a shame that a lot of women have the same experience. Thanks for telling your story!
and thank you for sharing yours. xo