Facebook reply leads to a human-interest story
Last month we published a story about Jacob Erwin, a story of one man’s journey in life with his dogs and being homeless in Viroqua. As usual, we shared the story on a few different Facebook pages. Little did I know, it would prompt my next story.
A couple of days went by after sharing Jacob’s story, and I received a notification that a comment was made on the post. Curious of course, I clicked to read what was said. It was a comment made by Tatiana Katara who lives in Viroqua, and it read; “When I was in Minneapolis many years ago in winter, I was locked out of the place I lived. I wasn't homeless then, but it was -30 below wind chills that night. I walked to a shelter that wouldn't accept me because I didn't have kids. They suggested the Salvation Army downtown. On my way there, a cab driver picked me up, offering to keep me warm in the cab while we chat. He offered to buy me a hotel room, but had other plans that I was too naïve to see. I ended up in a bad situation, jumped off the balcony and ran to a gas station where I begged someone to take me away from there. After that, I did end up homeless for a short time, sleeping on couches when I could. I was too proud to ask for money or let people know. It's a very difficult situation. After that, I always carried food and warm clothes in my car to give people instead of money that might go to drugs or alcohol. I've known a lot of people who have absolutely no compassion for others, but we are all susceptible to losing what we have and not being able to recover. It's not a fun life, but it is a fast track to growth, compassion and resilience. Thanks for writing this and showing a perspective many will never see.” Moved by Tatiana’s comment, I replied; Tatiana, thank you for sharing a bit of your story. Your story matters as well. Like I said in the article, it was my honor. Be well.
Saying I was moved is an understatement. I told my wife Amanda about Tatiana’s comment and said, ‘I found my next story’. If you read Jacob’s story, his Facebook post made me want to know him and tell his story. So, I messaged Tatiana and asked if I could contact her, she obliged. After more than an hour-long conversation, I asked her if she would let me tell a bit of her story. She said yes. Who is Tatiana? I found that she is an incredibly gifted artist and a good human being.
Growing up in Clyde, Wisconsin artistic talent ran in the family. Tatiana’s father and great-grandfather were Frank Lloyd Wright apprentices and in the fellowship. “My great grandpa helped build Taliesin. My mom's an artist and graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago. She's still alive. My dad died last year and they're both really creative, creative genius people. My mother can paint anything. My father became a painter when he was 80. He's way better than I am. I mean, they're both better than I am, but it's just interesting that somebody can start so late and just be so masterful right away.” With artistic influences, Tatiana would come into her own as well.
Growing up on a horse farm with around 40 Arabian horses, Tatiana found that her mother’s friends were her friends as well. “My friends were all older. I wasn't a regular kid. So, I didn't really understand kids much. I spent a lot of time in the woods playing in nature and being with adults.”
After high school, Tatiana attended college in Madison, Wisconsin for art and design. Along the way she took an acting class and fell in love with it. This prompted a move to Minneapolis for acting school. “I lived there for seven years and really loved it. I eventually worked in the film industry doing scenic design, scenic painting and painting sets for commercials, building props, things like that. That’s when I met my kids’ dad John who owned a scene company in Minneapolis that did a lot of set building and filming them and stuff.”
Eventually the two moved back to the Driftless area to get out of the city after they got pregnant. They found and purchased an old farm house that needed a lot of work, a fixer upper. As work commenced on the farm house, the couple grew apart and went their separate ways when their children were 2 ½ and 4. Parting in a good way and as friends, Tatiana stressed that John is a “good dad”. She acknowledged that he had taught her a lot having worked in the scenic industry, knowledge that served her well in finishing the house herself. “I'm like, oh, I better go learn how to do a sheet rock because I need to pull this house back together. I can't be living in a gutted house. So, I went to work for a drywaller and learned how to mud and tape and paint. I finished fixing up the farmhouse and I was able to sell that and move us into town and buy this house six years ago.” She said she didn’t miss her mile long driveway that had to be kept graded and then plowed in the wintertime. Sometimes she and her kids would be locked in because the driveway wasn’t plowed, so living in town nixed that problem.
As for her art, Tatiana has been painting at music festivals since 2003, and as she put it, “just kind of trying to make art my career”. “I used to do photography for my friend who owns Harmony Park Music Gardens, they put on festivals. I've been going there since ‘93 before I had kids. A friend of mine, was doing a lot of black light stuff, architectural things out of fabric and hula hoops, and then he’d light them up and there would be a big installation in the forest. One day he said, ‘I'm gonna be doing this triptych. I want to have you paint on one side, and one of our art guys Chuck paint the other’.” But Tatiana had another idea, she just wanted to do her own thing and just paint at the festivals. Her friend agreed. “So, he lit it up an area next to the stage with the black lights, and I had brought black light paint, and would just start painting on a bunch of four by eight sheets that were hinged together into like a big screen. People were like whoa, and started watching. When you put the paint on, it leaves trails because the paint, as the light is exposing it, it brightens up and so your paintbrush has a slight trail behind it. It's so it's fun to watch that when that happens, it's like painting with liquid light.”
The next year or maybe even later in that season as Tatiana tried to recall, she asked her friend who owned the venue if the sheltered wings coming off the stage were being used for anything. “I said, can I paint in that spot? And he said, ‘Sure’. So, Chuck and I decided to collaborate and paint together and we did that probably until 2009. Then we decided to each take a side of the stage, and our friend that owns the park would just give us a ticket to come in. We painted for free, and eventually after 10 years, I thought to myself, hey I want to get paid to do this. I feel I'm not a fraud anymore. I feel that I’m actually am an artist. I'm doing a good job, people enjoy it, and so I'd like to get paid.” After talking with the promoters, they agreed to compensate her. Eventually, that would end when COVID set in and public venues were shut down or greatly restricted.
Her passion of black light painting at the Harmony Park shows, eventually branched out into other shows, creating art at venues like the Grateful Dead Ball in Chicago, and the Dream Time and Arise Music Festivals both in Colorado. Those are just a few of the venues she has painted at. Not to mention she was the first featured live artist to paint at the 10,000 lakes festival. Tatiana is well known for her Faerie Art, that has been featured on websites, television shows, and featured in a book titled, Fairy Homes & Gardens, by Schiffer Publishing in 2014. Her accomplishments in painting at live venues is impressive and way too extensive to share in this article. (Click here for more venues and musicians Tatiana has painted for)
Today, there are hundreds of artists who do live black light painting. Back in 2003 though, as far as she knows, she was the only one that came up on Google when you searched for black light painter live. She said that for quite a few years when those keywords were searched, she was in the top rankings. “Now, you probably can’t find me very easily, because there's so many other people doing it. Now, people want to do it for free. So, they wrecked, they destroyed the industry. Now venues are like, why should we pay you, we have plenty of people who want to paint for free. They don't really see the value in it so much.”
Regardless, Tatiana said she’s happy to have people paint, truly feeling it's just another big visual beautiful thing that people love to watch. “To actually get on stage and be painting as a featured painter to all the bands like I've always done, is turning into a different thing where people are just, in the field. That means their stuff is vulnerable. They're not rigged up; they don't have lighting, they don't have like I had, a stage that I would build a platform on, and a giant 16-foot easel. Now, I think it's harder to get that kind of treatment.”
Alongside her art, Tatiana has been on a deeper spiritual journey, and became a hypnotherapist and intuitive guide. “In 2004, I started doing readings for people, because I had information coming through me, and I really kind of rejected it for a long time. I just didn't want to be public about it. I wanted to make sure it was authentic and that the information I was getting was verifiable and evidential.” Having had some really amazing experiences, Tatiana shared one of them. “I dreamt about 911 before it happened, over and over and over, and then it happened. I was like, Whoa, there's my dream on TV.” To her, that was proof that there's something mysterious and real in this world of spirit. “It's about physics and math, quantum mechanics. Everything is connected. I try to show that in my art at festivals. That was always kind of my service; to provide beauty to people so they can find a place of peace.”
According to Tatiana’s website, she started experimenting with hypnosis when she was 20 years old after reading a book about hypnosis and practiced it on friends and college classmates. For years, Tatiana devoured many books on hypnosis, the brain, and the power of the subconscious mind, and anything she could find on self-development and Metaphysics. During that time, she used hypnosis as an experiment in developing psychic powers and spiritual inquiry within herself and others. Eventually, she decided that in order to really help people on a professional level, she should become certified and have proper credentials and training to assist people with their deep internal struggles and real-world issues. In 2004, Tatiana Katara became certified with the National Guild of Hypnotherapists, and earned her credentials as a Hypnotherapist and Master Hypnotist, 5 PATH and 7th PATH Hypnosis techniques, and EFT through the Banyan Hypnosis Center. In the early 90's, Tatiana began her part-time career in coaching after studying through the Coaches Training Institute. She also became a Matrix Energetics Practitioner in 2009, with her teacher Dr. Richard Bartlett. Her gift and passion allow her to help people through complex struggles and find their purpose in life. Tatiana worked at the Wonewoc Spiritualist Camp as a full-time medium for 3+ years and enjoys giving readings by phone. Now, Tatiana combines her intuitive and psychic abilities with her skills with hypnotherapy, healing and coaching to offer transformational change for those who seek. With over 30 years of experience in hypnosis and subsequent healing modalities and teachings, she has experienced a flow of evidential mediumship, guided assistance for those who seek it, and an outpouring of writings and downloads that she is organizing into a variety of teaching modalities and workshops.
Seeking to further her connectedness, and understand her place in the great circle of being, in 2015, Tatiana began participating in Ayahuasca ceremonies, eventually completing 13 in total. In addition to having a deep spiritual awakening and connectedness to life, Tatiana shared, the ceremonies expanded the spiritual aspect to her artwork. “I got a lot of beauty from doing those ceremonies, and a lot of wisdom and inspiration for my art, and I just couldn't stop painting, I just was painting and painting.”
Tatiana believes as I do, that everything in our lives happen for a reason. One day this past January, Tatiana, also an avid skier and instructor, experienced a life changing and enlightening event. She was working on a construction crew for Driftless HomeWrights at the time, and they were going to start building a house. That particular day, she was called into work on a Monday. “I never work at the ski hill on Mondays, except for that one. Dan my boss said ‘Don't worry, we will be framing, there will be plenty of time to work on this house. Go ski you don’t know how many days are left to ski.’ So, I went skiing and taught my class to a bunch of kids.” Afterwards, Tatiana was sitting eating a salad, when she overheard a man say, “I gotta go home. I'm gonna live to ski another day”. After hearing what the man said, Tatiana said something felt ominous. Something just didn’t feel right to her. “When I feel like that, I don't ski. I was thinking yeah, I probably shouldn't ski either. And then my friend came out who's a ski racer, and decided I'll ski with him. So, I took one run on my own and it was great. Then I went on the Hill that he picked. They hadn't groomed that hill. He went first and then I went down.” As she skied down the hill, she wiped out and her ski did not release from her boot. “I didn't hit anything, but I was going really fast, and I shattered my leg below the knee. And sometimes I think, well that's probably not a technical term and can I really say that. But I looked at the pictures and I'm like, yep, that's shattered.” In immense pain, where she said death at that point would have been welcomed, her Fibula and Tibia were shattered. Ski patrol and rescue came to her aid, and she was brought to the hospital. Surgeries would follow to insert hardware, and her healing process began.
Tatiana knew she could not heal on her own without any help. The help was there, provided by her ex-Bryan (the father of their 14-year-old son, her youngest). Bryan took great care of them both while also maintaining the house for months. She said that Bryan is the most gracious and compassionate human being. “I feel that I've been supported through this past five months of trying to just get back to walking. Thinking, now I'm ready, I could go to work, I could go work for Driftless HomeWrights. Maybe, not all day, but I could definitely start carrying lumber and bending over or whatever. I don't even know where they are in the process right now of building that home. They're probably five months in, who knows what they're doing.”
Tatiana thought maybe that the accident was stopping her from going back to construction. Maybe she was supposed to be doing her art, which at the time she had put on the back burner. “The ski accident brought me back to art, because I was painting my leg, the pain in my leg. I don't know if you saw that painting. I would put the canvas down and I'd paint orange where it hurts, and paint little diamonds, because that's what it feels like. Then I painted my hardware. I’d take the canvas off my leg and walk around or whatever, and put it back anytime I was feeling something. I was trying to paint it, trying to paint the healing of it.”
Tatiana believes that we all can heal, no matter what the situation. She told herself she could not just keep wearing the brace on her leg. “Putting the brace on every day to me, is a reminder that I'm broken, that I need fixing or something's wrong. I thought to myself, you have to let go of your crutches and your braces. Whether they're emotional or mental crutches. For me, it would be a mental crutch, that I could remain handicapped forever. I'm going to ski again, I'm sure. But I know that I'm making art and that I have the talent and the ability to be an artist. And I'm not gonna let AI and all the beautiful art it makes scare me away.”
In the past, Tatiana said she never would have thought she would move to Viroqua, live in the big old house on the corner and have kids. “I didn't ask for this, I couldn't have. The universe provides in better ways than I could ever plan. So, how can I plan my future? If I plan my future too much, then I'll probably do a bad job versus just like trusting in every moment, that I'm following my intuition. You're like, who’s this woman who commented on this post? I should connect with her. I don't know why, but I'm going to trust your intuition. If something in me was like, don't do it, then I wouldn't do it. So, every day I ask myself what feels right today? I want to design my life to continue being that way. Every day of my life, I live it like I'm retired, with some work in between, like working on my house. I'm just keep making it beautiful, more and more beautiful.”
Working and changing her house is a journey as well. She feels it will be worth more than if she bought it and was content with the way it was. “So, this is my investment in myself, and if I can't go to a regular job, I'll do this and I'll make art.”
Shortly after my initial phone conversation with Tatiana, she started posting time lapse videos of her just drawing faces, all the time, and posting them on Facebook. I asked her, “Why all the simple beautiful drawings”. She replied, “Talking to you inspired me”. That of course was the short answer. In reality, Tatiana, you inspired me.
Visit Tatiana at her website tatianakatara.com, and on Facebook.
