Anahata Katkin – Papayalicious!

Meet Anahata Katkin of Ashland, Oregon.  She is the inspiration behind a lovely line of uplifting goods called Papaya!.

A portion of her bio reads, "I have had a passion for collage since I was a kid. I cut up words and magazines for comfort. And the tradition lasted as I got older. I turned to sketchbooks and journals as early as third grade for that morsel for expression that magically seems to balance things again.

I don't know why cutting things apart to reassemble them has made the world right side up for me- but at times it has literally done just that.
I have a little training in fine arts.  Most of what I create now has been a necessary process of exploration in mixed media and art journaling over the years that developed mainly out of creative isolation. (Having to figure out new materials, sizes and techniques is a wonderful way to develop your own style.)
After many years of keeping art journals my mother and I decided to launch an arts business in the stationery industry. Translating original artwork into digital renderings for greeting cards.

It has been an incredibly wonderful way for me to express myself as an artist. A great bridge for me between my creative life and my mundane life. I have been able to remain creatively free and self directed using the same formulas that kept me company years ago on the couch with only a journal, a cup of tea and some paint to overcome a stressful day.

Overtime I have fallen in love with digital arts and see it as a the ultimate tool. Today much of what I create at PaPaYa! is digital or a combination. I love this balance. When I burn out with digital artwork I play with my hand work. And vice versa.

To me the beauty of so much of the mixed media and journal arts movement is the personal quality of it.  I try very hard to create artwork for myself and nothing more. And when I succeed in getting out of my own way- I share it with the rest of the world. That's my formula."
We're proud to carry a few of Anahata's journals, magnets and 'The Art of Mail' stationery sets (I'd love to get one of those envelopes in my mailbox!) online and a number of her canvases and other designs at our Rochester and Berkley locations.

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