When Kay Meadows and I first met in 2022, she was working in graphic design while also illustrating children’s books and exploring her art.
Catching up with her for Creative Juggle Joy gave me a chance to hear how much has changed. Painting has moved closer to the center of her working life. She has been exhibiting, teaching, taking commissions and developing her own stories as an author and illustrator.
Then, last year, her remote graphic design job ended.
After roughly 30 years in that field, it was a significant change. Kay described it as both scary and freeing. She suddenly had space to ask what might happen if she gave her art a more central place.
What stayed with me was the way she spoke about finding her voice. Her earlier work, her experiments and the people around her are all contributing to the artist she is becoming.
A voice can develop over time
Kay told me she had wanted to be a fine artist since childhood. At college, though, she didn’t yet have a clear sense of what her work would say or look like.
She chose graphic design because she could see a way to earn a living through it.
Now, with more experience behind her, she feels she is beginning to find that voice. She is painting regularly and exploring acrylic, oil, watercolor and pastel.
I appreciated her willingness to experiment. She isn’t describing a moment when everything became settled. She is learning through the work itself.
For artists who feel uncertain about their direction, that can be reassuring. You can pay attention to what interests you, work with it and notice what begins to emerge.
Painting outside offers a different kind of attention
Kay has been doing a great deal of plein air painting, which means painting outdoors, directly from the scene in front of you.
She described the pleasure of standing before a landscape and responding to it. It asks something different of her than illustration or design.
There are practical challenges, too. The light changes. The weather changes. Decisions need to be made as conditions shift.
Getting outside also brings her into contact with other artists. She enjoys the friendships, the travel and the opportunity to learn about different places.
That combination stood out to me: a practice that develops her painting while also bringing more connection into her life.
If you usually work alone, it may be helpful to consider where a little shared creative time could fit. An occasional group session can offer a different perspective on work that normally happens in solitude.
Sharing your work involves vulnerability
Kay has been entering exhibitions and competitions, and she has received awards and recognition.
She spoke honestly about how vulnerable it can feel to have others judge something so personal. The recognition has been encouraging, but she described community as the greater benefit.
Each experience has helped her meet people, learn and discover further possibilities.
There is something valuable in that distinction. We can care about the outcome of a submission while also recognising what participation gives us.
For a newer artist, that might be seeing how a local exhibition works. For a more experienced artist, it might be a conversation that opens a different way of thinking about their practice.
The result matters, but it isn’t the only thing we can take from the experience.
Teaching helps us understand our own process
When I asked Kay about teaching, she explained that it makes her slow down and consider why she does something.
An instinctive decision has to become an explanation someone else can follow. Simplifying a step for beginners can reveal just how much knowledge has accumulated over time.
That feels very familiar to me as a teacher.
Kay also talked about people arriving convinced that they cannot paint or even draw a straight line. With a little humor, she admitted that she can’t draw or paint a straight line either.
Then those same learners often surprise themselves.
It was a warm reminder that someone’s first description of their ability is not necessarily a useful measure of what they can learn. Encouragement and clear instruction can give them room to discover more.
Earlier experience can support new work
Kay sees connections across her creative activities.
Design informs her compositions. Illustration supports visual storytelling. Painting strengthens her illustration, and teaching gives her another way to understand technique.
Her technical experience also helps her prepare artwork for books and prints. She knows more about the production process because of her design career.
When she said, “I'm not starting from zero,” I thought about the students I’ve met who come to art after years in other professions.
Their previous work may look quite different on the surface, but they bring experience with learning, problem-solving and working with people. There is value in recognising that while still allowing themselves to be beginners with a new tool or medium.
Kay holds both ideas comfortably. She has experience to draw on, and she remains interested in what she has yet to learn.
A new series is giving her stories another form
One of Kay’s current projects is The Pilgrimage, her first large painting series.
It grew from a trip to Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, where she connected her visit with Georgia O’Keeffe’s work. Kay described an experience there that helped her see how she could tell a story through a series of paintings.
As someone already working with books, she is now exploring another form of storytelling.
She hopes the series will lead to opportunities to exhibit and perhaps speak about the work. Those possibilities are still ahead of her, but the paintings are giving her a direction to develop.
I look forward to seeing how that body of work grows.
You can move forward without knowing every outcome
Kay is still working out how painting, illustration, writing, teaching and commissions will fit into a sustainable career.
She knows she enjoys several kinds of work. She is learning to choose opportunities more carefully and to accept that she doesn’t have to do everything at once.
Her larger goal is clear: she wants her creative work to have a central place in her life, with room for possibilities she hasn’t yet imagined.
Our conversation reminded me how much can change when we keep making, learning and sharing our work. We may not be able to predict the shape of the next few years, but we can notice what matters to us and give it our attention.
If you’ve been wondering whether there is still time to develop your art, I hope you’ll listen to Kay’s story. She brings experience, curiosity and a willingness to keep growing. Those are good things to carry into any new creative chapter.
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Resources or Businesses Mentioned in This Episode
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Kay Meadows: Artist, illustrator and author, and my guest for this conversation.
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Kay’s children’s books: Her illustration work and her move into writing and illustrating her own books. Individual titles were not provided. See her books on her website above
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The Pilgrimage: Kay’s first large painting series, developed following her trip to Ghost Ranch. Not published yet
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Ghost Ranch, New Mexico: The place Kay visited before beginning the series.
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Georgia O’Keeffe: Mentioned by Kay in connection with Ghost Ranch.
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Kay’s surface pattern home decor work: She is preparing to pitch this work to art agencies. No agencies were named.
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Delores Naskrent’s classes and memberships: Mentioned in our discussion of artists learning after careers in other fields. No specific class or membership was named. learn.deloresart.ca/p/membership-main-page-2026
Some links in this post may be affiliate links, which means either Kaylie or Delores may receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you). We only share tools or products we genuinely love and use ourselves.
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Delores Naskrent: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome back to the Creative Juggle Joy. I'm especially excited about today's conversation because I'm catching up with my friend Kay, who I met back in 2022. That's a while ago, isn't it?
Kay Meadows: Yes.
Delores Naskrent: I can't believe it's already been four years. So a lot has happened in Kay's creative life since then.
She has continued illustrating children's books, which is how I first knew of her. She's become an author herself. She has really extended her fine art practice. It's really taken off, and she's been exhibiting and winning awards and teaching, working on commissions and becoming increasingly involved in the arts community in Mississippi.
And then last year, something happened that changed the trajectory of her career even more. After 30 years working in graphic design... 30 years, wow ... Kay's remote job ended. Suddenly the question wasn't just how to fit her art around her [00:01:00] career, it became could art actually be the career? And that's really what I wanted to explore today.
What happens when all of these different creative threads start coming together into a completely new chapter? Kay, welcome. Welcome to the Creative Juggle Joy. I'm so happy we're finally doing this.
Kay Meadows: Thank you. I'm excited too. I can't believe it's been since 2022 myself, and a lot has happened since then.
Okay. So much has happened since then that when I started trying to write it all down for you, I realized there were probably 100 things I was forgetting. But it's really exciting to be able to look back at where I was when we met and where things have taken me since.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah. Let's look back to 2023 maybe. Let's start there. When we met in 2022, what did your creative life look like? And when you compare that version of yourself with where you are now, what feels like the biggest change?
Kay Meadows: At that point I was still working in graphic [00:02:00] design, having a day job, which had been my career for about 30 years, while I was also doing my illustration and other creative work.
I was already illustrating children's books and exploring different opportunities with my art, but I think the biggest difference now is that I've really started thinking of my art as the center of what I want my career to become. Fine art in particular has become much more important to me. I'm painting regularly now, doing a lot of plein air work and experimenting with acrylic, oil, watercolor, and pastel.
Delores Naskrent: Wow.
Kay Meadows: Yeah. I've been also exhibiting entering competitions, teaching, taking commissions, and becoming more involved in the local art community. So I think the biggest change is that all these different pieces of my creative life have started coming together.
Delores Naskrent: Wow. That is a lot. One of the biggest changes came when your remote graphic design job ended so abruptly after roughly 30 years in the industry.
I'm sure that alone was a huge transition. What [00:03:00] was going through your mind when that happened? Was there ever a point where you realized this might actually look more like an opportunity to build the next chapter around your art?
Kay Meadows: It was definitely a big adjustment. Graphic design had been such a huge part of my working life for so long that suddenly not having that regular job was both scary and freeing.
Sometimes you get what you really want. So I actually was very excited that I was getting my chance to step out and spread my wings, but it also forced me to think seriously about what I wanted the next stage of my life to look like. Instead of always trying to fit my art around my job, I've suddenly had the opportunity to ask what would happen if I really gave the art a chance.
So I'm still figuring out exactly what that looks like because there are so many different directions I enjoy. But I'm much more intentional now about building a creative career around the work I actually want to be doing.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah. What really struck me in everything you sent me was just how much fine art has now moved to the [00:04:00] forefront.
You're doing plein air painting, working in acrylic, oil, watercolor, and pastel. That's a lot of different things. And you're entering shows, which I think takes a lot of guts, and competitions, and really developing this whole other side of yourself. What do you think drew you back toward painting so strongly?
Kay Meadows: I've wanted to be a fine artist ever since I was a little girl. When I was in college, I just didn't have a good idea of what that meant. I had no voice at the time, so I decided to change to graphic design. At least I knew I could make a living with that. I, of course, have aged since then, and I've begun to find my voice and what I think my art will say and look like.
I love illustration and design, but there's something very different about standing in front of a landscape or a subject and responding to it directly.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah.
Kay Meadows: Plein air painting especially has challenged me in a really good way. You have to make decisions quickly. The light changes, the weather changes, and you can endlessly fuss with things.
Also, it [00:05:00] gets you out of the studio, and often I'm with other artists, so it's good networking and making friends. Traveling to different places is a lot of fun for me as well. I enjoy sightseeing and learning about different cities and locations.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah.
Kay Meadows: I've also enjoyed experimenting with different media instead of feeling like I have to choose one and stay there.
That explanation has helped me develop my own voice as a painter.
Delores Naskrent: All right. And you're not just painting quietly at home. You've been putting the work out into the world. You've been doing exhibitions, competitions, and commissions, and you've had some wonderful recognition along the way. What has it been like to start seeing your fine art work recognized?
Kay Meadows: It's been very encouraging and validating. Anytime you put your artwork into a show or competition, there's vulnerability involved because you're letting other people judge something that's very personal to you. Receiving awards and recognition has helped confirm that I'm moving in the right direction.
But I think the bigger benefit [00:06:00] has been becoming part of the art community.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah.
Kay Meadows: I'm meeting other artists, learning from them, and getting opportunities that I probably wouldn't have found if I'd kept the work to myself. So each experience seems to lead to another one.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah.
And meanwhile, you haven't left illustration behind at all. You've continued to illustrate children's books, which I think is so cool, but now you've also crossed over into writing and illustrating your own work. I'd love to hear more about that. Like, how different does it feel when the story and the artwork are yours?
Kay Meadows: It's definitely different. When you're illustrating someone else's book, you're interpreting their story visually. You want to bring your own creativity to it while still respecting what the author is trying to communicate. When it's your own story, you have control over the whole world. That's exciting, but it also means you're responsible for everything.
Yeah. It's been a, it's been another way for me to combine the skills I've developed over the years, design, illustration, [00:07:00] storytelling, and art, instead of feeling like they have to live in separate boxes.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah. I totally get that. Another piece that feels very familiar to me is teaching, and I know you've been teaching art as well as making it, and you've become more and more involved in your local arts community.
Do you feel like teaching has changed the way you think about your own work?
Kay Meadows: Oh, yeah, definitely.
Teaching makes you slow down and think about why you do something rather than simply doing it instinctively. When you have to explain a process to someone else, you often understand your own process better. This can be a challenge because of my experience of painting for so long, to simplify a step for beginners makes you really dig for a way to explain it, and it sometimes surprises me at how far I've come as a painter/artist.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah.
Kay Meadows: The best part is I really enjoy encouraging other people creatively. So many come to me saying they can't paint or draw a [00:08:00] straight line, which I can't draw a straight line or paint one either. But often these same people surprise themselves, and they do so much better than they thought they would.
So being involved with other artists also have been important because creative work can be very solitary. Having that community gives you people who understand both the exciting parts and the difficult parts.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah, for sure. Of course, this podcast is called the Creative Juggle Joy, and I think you're the perfect example of that-
talking to you here. You're painting, you're illustrating, you're writing, you're teaching, you're taking commissions, you're exhibiting, and still figuring out the business side of making all of this sustainable, especially because you're doing it all on your own at the moment. How do you decide where to put your energy when you have so many creative interests?
Kay Meadows: I'm still figuring that out. 'Cause I'm unable to narrow myself down to one thing. Working in corporate America has helped me though. It's helped me learn how to organize my own work and time, and that is something I'm [00:09:00] very grateful for. Since I'm easily distracted, this has helped ground me.
From naming files to organizing the folders on my computer, what I will do each day, and so forth. For a long time, I think we're told that we need to choose one specialty or one clear identity, but I've realized that all these different things feed each other.
Also, I don't think people realize this, but when you start expressing your creativity, it just starts flowing.
I've had so many creative ideas, it's ridiculous. I will wake up some mornings in the twilight sleep and start getting ideas, or I'll see something somewhere and it'll create an idea. So that keeps things interesting for me. I think as well, being a graphic designer helped me be brave enough to illustrate children's books because I understand the whole process.
Not only can I paint the illustrations, I can get the artwork ready to be put in the file to create the book, and I understand the process of creating the book and it going to the printer. This has helped as well with learning surface pattern design. So having a lot of interests has helped me [00:10:00] more than hinder me.
My graphic design background affects how I compose paintings. Illustration affects how I tell stories visually. Fine art makes my illustrations stronger. Teaching makes me think differently about technique. After doing all of these different things, I know what I enjoy, so I try to make sure that whatever I'm being offered is something I really wanna do. If it's a job that I can take or leave it, I try to recommend someone I know that prefers that kind of work whatever that is.
So I'm learning that I don't have to do everything at once. I
Delores Naskrent: I think this part of your story is going to resonate with so many people listening. I know many people who are just the same as we are, that whole squirrel or shiny object syndrome.
Kay Meadows: Yes.
Delores Naskrent: There are a lot of artists like us in mid-life and beyond who wonder whether they've somehow missed their chance.
And here you are, after a 30-year career in graphic design, you're actively building this new version of your [00:11:00] creative life, and how wonderful is that? Yeah. What would you say to somebody who's thinking, "I'd love to do that, but isn't it too late?"
Kay Meadows: It's definitely not too late. I'm going to be creating till I die.
That's just the way it is. , I have to be learning, growing, and seeing what I can do next. In some ways I think everything you've done before gives you something to bring to, into the next chapter. This has been so true for me. I had a painting instructor in college who was very upset when she found out I was going to switch to graphic design.
She told me I'd never paint again. Of course, that was upsetting. But now that we are in this computer world, I'm so glad I went that direction. Yeah. I'm ahead of the game because I know the programs needed to do the children's books or the surface pattern designs and and illustrations for all kind of products.
I know how to set up my art to create prints, et cetera. I don't have any regrets.
Delores Naskrent: Awesome.
Kay Meadows: I'm, yeah, I'm not starting from zero. So I'm bringing 30 years of [00:12:00] design experience, problem-solving, working with clients, understanding composition and color and all those things with me.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah.
Kay Meadows: But I'm also allowing myself to be a beginner again in certain areas.
So that's really exciting. You don't have to know exactly where it's gonna lead you before you start. Sometimes you just have to follow that thing that's interesting you and see where it takes you.
Delores Naskrent: For sure. So with all of these things happening, what are you most excited about right at this moment?
What would you- ... love the next couple of years to look like?
Kay Meadows: I'd love to continue developing my fine art practice and exhibiting more. I'm working on a series of paintings called The Pilgrimage that was born out of my trip to Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. Georgia O'Keefe lived there and created some of her best-known artwork.
I had an experience on that trip that I felt opened me up being able to create a series that tells a story, and this is expanding my storytelling and authoring of a different kind of message. This is the first [00:13:00] large series I've ever created, and I hope this will give me an opportunity to show this work and maybe be asked to speak at organizations, you know- Right
or other places.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah.
Kay Meadows: And I want to keep working on illustration and books as well. I'm interested in seeing where teaching and commissions take me. And I'm about to pitch my Surface Pattern home decor to some art agencies. Like I mentioned earlier, I've finally got my website looking pretty good.
So- Excellent ... I'm ready to send that out. But I think the bigger goal is creating a life where my creative work isn't something I squeeze into the leftover spaces. You know- Yeah ... I want it to be the work. And I wanna stay open enough that opportunities I haven't even thought of yet can become part of that.
Delores Naskrent: Great. When you wake up in the morning, when you're getting those thoughts- creeping in, that's when you can decide whether or not you want that to be a part of it, and I just love that. I think that's a good place to end our podcast here, because your story really demonstrates something that I feel very strongly [00:14:00] about.
A creative career especially, doesn't have to be one straight line.
Kay Meadows: Yeah.
Delores Naskrent: Sometimes everything you've done before, even the things that seem unrelated at the time, become part of what you're building next. It doesn't mean that you had to have been in the art field to continue with it. I have- Right
lots of people in my classes, memberships, and so on, who had been a nurse for 30 years or had worked in the public sector for 30 years. Yes. I'm really proud of everything you've accomplished since we met. I love hearing these stories, and we had a group of four, our peer group of four, and we've all gone in such different directions.
I am so excited, Kay, to see where this next chapter will take you. Thanks so much, really, for taking this time out to come onto the Creative Juggle Joy and to catch up with me. This has been so fun.
Kay Meadows: Thank you. I am so [00:15:00] honored that you asked me because sometimes it's not always easy to realize the accomplishments till somebody asks you, so it was nice going through this and thinking about what all has been going on and I appreciate that you see, what's happening with me, and I'm excited and proud of you too, 'cause you're doing a lot. But you've always impressed me, ever since I met you. Well- So thank you so much for having me on.
Delores Naskrent: Yeah. If you were here in the room with me, you'd be getting a big hug right now. Yes. And to everyone listening, to everyone who has heard Kay's story here, thanks for joining us. I hope her story reminds you that there is no expiration date on the building of a creative life, and you don't have to have the entire path figured out before you begin, right?
You don't know. You have no idea. Yes. Just keep making, keep experimenting, and keep finding your own way to juggle creativity with everything else life brings your way. I'll see you next time on The Creative Juggle Joy.
