By Kathy Crabbe
I’ve been an artist forever! I try to paint every day because it brings me richness; of experience, emotion, intuition and yes, income too! I don’t necessarily choose what I’ll be painting, it chooses me!
During Covid I only painted cute, cozy kittens on wood. Now I’m painting nudes in surreal settings spontaneously chosen and titled. Often my artwork becomes an oracle deck (like tarot but using my own system). I use these oracle decks to give soul readings. It’s a way to be more interactive with my art and to really reach deep and touch people on a whole other level.
My latest deck is the Cat Herbal Oracle deck. I collected 80 of my paintings and turned them into two decks. They help people by giving them spiritual, wild medicine tips when pulled in a soul reading.
My first and favorite deck is the Lefty Oracle deck. I painted that one with my non dominant left hand, my ‘intuitive’ hand. In the year 2000 I was completely bored with all the work I was creating with my right hand so I switched to using my left and continue to do so! That early ‘lefty work’ became 1000’s of characters that I turned into a deck that I published many years later. Working with both hands gave both sides of my brain a work out, helping to connect and expand my rational and intuitive sides and I believe that is what led me to becoming a professional soul reader.
My second deck was the Goddess Zodiac Power deck. I channeled all the paintings in this deck over one month’s time as the moon flowed through each sign of the zodiac. I wrote, danced, painted, researched goddesses and compiled it all into a book and taught interactive art classes with the material initially.
My third deck is a spirit animal deck: the Elfin Ally Oracle. In it the elves interact with their spirit animals. I wrote poetry for each card and included affirmations, lore, animal medicine and more in the guidebook.
I’ve also been working with a Celtic Tree Ogham Oracle Goddess deck and may publish that too.
When I started out I didn’t even believe it was possible to be an artist and make a living. But meeting my husband who is an entrepreneur and moving to Laguna Beach from Canada changed all that. During my Saturn Return (at age 30 for all of us) I experienced a rebirthing session in Laguna and saw my entire career path in front of me and within one year I had begun silk painting and selling my work as cards and clothing at loads of art shows!
During my Uranus Opposition (at age 40 for all of us) I needed to go within and heal the Divine Feminine so I painted large abstracts (4×4 foot) for 5 years.
At age 50 (Chiron Return for all of us) and now that I’m 55 I finally feel it all come together allowing me to relax into the beauty of this life I’ve co-created and to share it in a relaxed, joyful way. I do love marketing and sharing my work online, but I try to make sure it doesn’t feel like a burden. My work and life are magickally intertwined and I approach everything intuitively first and then work out the logistics next to bring my dreams and visions to fruition in tune with the universe, the divines, my spirit guides and ancestors.
I don’t necessarily recommend that one become a professional artist because it is a hard life. Doing art shows is grueling and self promotion is a whole job in itself. Many artists have other jobs. I feel very lucky and blessed to be able to create art for a living and to use my art to empower others on their own creative, intuitive path. What could be better than that?
Being Neurodiverse has only been a blessing in this art path I’ve chosen because it’s allowed me to expand in highly unusual ways and to open portals into otherworlds in the process.
Biography
I’m 55, a passionate artist and intuitive working at my own business my entire life. My work and life are intertwined and I love sharing all the beautiful, magickal ways that spirit has guided me on this path that allows me to be of service with every fiber of my being. My intuitive gifts truly awakened at age forty after five years spent painting with my non dominant left hand which led to the creation of the Lefty Oracle deck and giving soul readings.
Kathy’s website: http://kathycrabbe.com
