My Creative Journey: From Ballet Shoes to Botanical Art

Artist Interview Series — Studio Stories: Conversations with Kirsten Katz

Part 1: My Creative Journey — From Ballet Shoes to Botanical Art

Welcome to the Artist Interview Series — a behind-the-scenes conversation with Kirsten Katz, Australian botanical artist and surface designer based in Sydney. Known for her vibrant floral paintings, bold Australian botanicals, and collections spanning art prints, tea towels, homewares, jewellery and licensed textiles, Kirsten has built a deeply personal creative business over more than a decade. In this series, she shares the stories, inspirations and decisions behind her art and her brand — in her own words.

Let's start at the beginning — when did art first become part of your life, and how did it evolve into a career in design?

Art has really been with me since the very beginning. I know it sounds early, but even at three or four years old, I was surrounded by creativity. My aunt was a professional artist, so I spent time in her studio, absorbing the smell of oils, the textures of canvases, the rhythm of her brushwork. My cousins were also older and incredibly artistic — they were always making something, and I found that world irresistible.

Creativity ran deep in my family. My grandmother was a ballerina and vaudeville performer, and my grandfather was a comedian — they were both part of the theatre world in their day. That spirit of performance and artistic expression was just part of the air I breathed growing up. Looking back now, I can see how impactful that was on my life, but at the time it was simply family — just the way things were.

I started ballet at four years old, and dance became my other great love. I trained before school, after school, on weekends — all the way through until my early twenties. By fourteen I was already teaching as a student teacher for my ballet teacher, and at fifteen I ran my own small jazz ballet school. One afternoon a week, a handful of students, and a fifteen-year-old in charge — looking back, that was quite entrepreneurial without me even realising it.

My love for making things grew alongside all of that. At Sunday school — which I attended from around age five to ten — I wasn't especially drawn to the religious side of things. What kept me coming back every week was the art and craft sessions that followed: painting, copper art, macramé, stitching, string art, plaster sculpting. It was a hands-on creative playground, and I loved every moment of it.

Throughout my teens and early adulthood, I kept creating. Sewing my own clothes, painting, making pottery — anything tactile. Sitting around doing nothing has never been something I'm good at. My best friend growing up was an avid reader; I preferred making things. Still do.

The jewellery years — and finding my way back to the brush

For many years, life took a different shape. My husband is a jeweller, and together we built a business — first travelling the coast of Australia selling tools and findings to jewellers door to door, then running our own shop. I was doing the accounts, the window displays, designing jewellery. It was full, creative work, but not quite the kind that was calling to me deepest.

When we sold the jewellery shop and I became a stay-at-home mum for the first time, I had four children — four under seven at one point — and I thought, what do I do with myself now? I started setting up little creative activities for the kids. Art and craft tables in the school holidays, painting sessions with all their friends. One afternoon, I set up my youngest son Asha at his little easel in his art smock, and I thought: why aren't I painting too? I used to be good at this. I came top of the year in art at school.

So I pulled out my brushes and started again. Flowers, still life, native Australian botanicals — proteas, waratahs — the things I'd always been drawn to. I had no intention of selling any of it. It was just for the love of it.

A winding road through mosaics, printmaking and textiles

That rekindling led me down some unexpected paths. One of the mothers at school happened to teach stained glass and mosaics from her studio shed, just a few streets away. I spent four beautiful hours a week in that shed, learning to cut and place glass, and eventually turned my own paintings into large mosaic wall panels — intricate, time-consuming labours of love that still hang in my home today.

Then came a full semester of printmaking at the National Art School — lino block, woodblock, and various other techniques. I was in a creative era of deep experimentation, trying everything, following whatever sparked my curiosity.

It was my daughter — who was studying fashion design at the time — who nudged me toward what would change everything. She mentioned a print and textile design course and suggested I apply. I was forty-eight years old and had never attended university or technical college. But I thought: why not? The kids are growing up, the business has settled. Now or never.

That full-time course in surface pattern design was intense, revelatory, and genuinely life-changing. I learned to screen print fabrics, construct hand-drawn repeat patterns, and think like a professional textile designer. And somewhere in the middle of it, I had a lightbulb moment: someone actually designs these fabrics I've always adored. That could be me.

From Instagram curiosity to the international stage

After the course, I didn't intend for it to become a business. But in 2012, in the early days of Instagram, I shared a few pieces — and messages started appearing. Do you license your prints? Can I buy your designs for fashion?

I had no idea what art licensing even was.

That curiosity sent me into a four-year period of deep learning — from 2012 to 2016 — studying everything I could about surface design, illustration, and building a genuine creative business. By 2017, 2018, and 2019, I was taking my collections to New York, presenting to international art directors and major global brands, and beginning to sign licensing contracts that would place my designs on fabric, bedding, wallpaper and homewares. Licensing deals with companies including Spotlight followed, and my work started reaching customers far beyond anything I'd imagined when I was painting beside my son at that little easel.

COVID changed everything again — but in an unexpected way, it gave me time. Our jewellery business paused. I was at home, I had space to paint, and I finally said to myself: just start. I listed my first art prints and tea towels on Etsy — just ten products. I remember the first time I heard that unfamiliar sound on my phone. I had no idea it was a sale notification. When I realised what it was, I thought: somebody actually bought something.

From ten sales to twenty. From twenty to one hundred. And once I hit one hundred, I knew — people genuinely loved my art. From Etsy, I moved to my own website, then rebuilt everything on Shopify in 2023. Today, Kirsten Katz Art & Design ships art prints, original paintings, tea towels, homewares, jewellery and stationery to customers across Australia and internationally, alongside an active licensing portfolio.

It all started with a lifelong love of creativity — reignited in those quiet moments, painting beside my children.

This is Part 1 of the Artist Interview Series. Continue reading: [Part 2: Why I Paint Flowers — A Botanical Artist's Story →] [Part 3: Inside My Studio: How I Bring Each Design to Life →] [Part 4: From Studio to Shelf: How I Choose Which Art Becomes a Product →]

Browse the art prints and original paintings that grew from this journey.