We’re looking forward to introducing you to Katie Goodrich. Check out our conversation below.
Katie, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
Gardening is my go-to happy place outside of work. My backyard had nothing but grass and scorching heat a few years ago, but I’ve been planting trees, bushes, roses, herbs, ivy, and wildflowers over the past five-ish years, and I love watching it evolve. Not every plant I buy survives, but the adventure is worth it.
I’ve found a local plant nursery and started researching native plants in my area and how they’ll help bring back essential wildlife to our communities. I love the idea of having a small nature preserve growing around my house. Now, instead of just mosquitoes, I have bees, lizards, birds, butterflies, and dragonflies who visit daily.
Taking breaks from work to wander through the plants, trim things back, pick basil and sage to dry, and daydream about my next planting goals really helps reduce my stress, improve my community, and discover more ways to help our earth in small steps that I can take daily.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Katie, also known as Kadusaurus, and I am an illustration artist with a life goal of bringing light and joy wherever I can, while highlighting the beauty all around us. I want to share how I view the world and the small joys that can help transform a day from dark to light.
My work began primarily as fan art of pop culture and characters I fell in love with, and I’ve recently been exploring portrait art as well. I find drawing a portrait of someone helps uncover what makes each person or pet uniquely beautiful and special.
My brand leans towards colorful expression and experimentation. I’ve begun focusing more on what comes naturally instead of trying to focus on a style that is trending or that I think will help people gravitate towards more.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
Well, this question really hits home! This is something I’ve been doing in personal healing work for months, if not years. I love taking quizzes that help you uncover your personality traits and working habits to better understand what makes me…me!
Before the pandemic, I was a Perfectionist according to the Enneagram test. Everything had to be perfect. I was an overachiever, a people pleaser, exhausted, stressed to the max, and never happy enough with my work. I’ve been working on what brings me joy, how to enjoy my life more, and I’m in my “recovering people pleaser” phase. When I took the Enneagram test again last year, I was really happy to find my personality type had changed into an Individualist. I’m learning to release my perfectionist tendencies and enjoy the “mistakes” that end up making for a better story in the long run (with so much less stress).
I want to stop second-guessing what I’m doing and wonder if it’s perfect. It’ll never be perfect, and if I wait until I think it’s perfect, I may never work on that next idea. As my Duolingo app reminds me, even when we fail, we are learning!
So my previous perfectionist self can happily move onto greener pastures, and my budding messier, happier, more creative self can enjoy trying out new projects, styles, techniques, and even get back into some different art forms.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I’ve almost given up multiple times, especially when I let the weight of the world get too heavy and push me down. There will always be days when my mind says it would be easier to just stop and let go of this work, to have less on my to-do list, but in the end, drawing and making art brings me joy. This joy is a form of owning my reality, reminding others that we are in this together, and that being a silly billy is worth your effort.
Living in today’s culture puts pressure on you to make everything marketable, but that’s not what will bring me joy in the long run. Growing up, I would create drawings of superheroes, poetry about natural landmarks, paint a dragon I made out of homemade play-dough, and wearing my own shirts or checkerboard pants as a way to take control of my surroundings and share parts of my personality that were silly or weird or a bit too much. Honestly, that’s how I found my greatest friends.
So, I’ve been going back to creating what I want to create and exploring clay craft and crocheting as art forms again. I’m trying digital painting techniques I was never confident enough to try before and falling in love with what I create.
I think I work slower than I imagine other artists work, and that’s ok. I feel that I have to start over and over more and more, but those are all lessons and explorations I never would have known I needed to try out if I hadn’t done them. I can’t quite capture certain scenes I think a more talented artist could capture, but that doesn’t mean what I create isn’t worth my time or unique perspective.
It all comes down to this “Kadusaurus” art persona, and what I create with it brings me so much substance in my daily life. I love sharing my latest work with friends, strangers, and family.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
I’m a beginner tree hugger, and I want to heal the planet. I used to play a game on bus rides to school where I would look at old billboards and other human-made things out of the window that seemed to have become forgotten and pretend I had the power to turn them back into their natural elements. I would keep a running tally in my mind about how many trees I imagined I could save with each snap of my fingers. Imagine Thanos from Avengers, but snapping trees and plants into existence instead of…well…you know.
My closest friends know how much I want an eco-friendly society. I want more butterflies, I want technology that safely ties into nature and benefits the natural order, I want that sci-fi future where nature and humans live in harmony together.
This is an area where progress is much better than perfection. I’m learning about small changes that I can make and work towards instead of the guilt trip of not doing more or doing it perfectly.
A great tiny thing that I see more and more people doing is carrying around their own water bottles. I bring an empty bottle to concerts when it’s allowed and fill it up inside. I reuse empty travel-size containers when I travel and refill them as much as I can. I am working on improving and building a habit of using what I have instead of buying something new. I’m learning how to mend clothing.
Now, if only I can successfully grow some food in my backyard instead of killing my zucchini and cucumber plants – at least the plants are pretty until they dry up!
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. If you retired tomorrow, what would your customers miss most?
I imagine they would miss the horrible puns I enjoy making and the reminders not to take life so seriously. I enjoy making myself giggle and tend to share these moments with my customer base, with work like Night of the Living Bread and Pink Pony Patrick. A little corny joke to break up the doom scrolling is a nice way to take a breath and maybe remember to take a break.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.katiegoodrich.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kadusaurus/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-goodrich-99347020/
- Other: https://kadusaurus.threadless.com/
Image Credits
Artist profile photo by Melissa Spurrier.
