Katherine’s Story
Hi, my name is Katherine Barnett. I am an artist. I love to create music videos and abstract art. Welcome to my website! There’s a long story behind the name and this website. If you’re interested in reading more about me, grab a cup a tea and continue reading my story.
If not… Here’s a quick summary. I love to travel and my primary objective is to create music videos featuring my artwork. As of 2019, I am currently trying to complete a nationwide album series. After that… explore the world. Start your tour with my first travel series album featuring my hometown.
I started this website in December 2013. Beatnik83 was my store name on society 6. However, it wasn’t my first shop name or my first shop online. I’ve been through many ups and downs with my artwork. I started showcasing my work early 2012 on beatnify.com. When that domain expired, I bought a new domain, katherinebarnett.me. That domain expired on December 14th, 2013 and at the time I only had .74 cents to my name so I couldn’t renew it. With no money for food or much of anything else, I received some assistance from my family. With the extra couple of dollars, I bought this domain. I hope I can continue building this website for many years to come. I am determined not to strike out again for the third time.
I started my first shop late in 2012, called Beatnik Blends. It was a shop on society 6. Within a couple of months, I moved the shop to etsy. However… life took a serious negative turn at work and my computer died in February 2013. I was really upset at the time and decided to close the shop. I reopened it for a couple months when I bought a used computer. I did eventually close the shop permanently on etsy because I was losing money to keep it open. I tried to continue making designs but my used computer started to die a slow death. I couldn’t create any new artwork and had to rely on borrowing another computer to make videos and new art.
I took a big risk in October of 2013 and quit my part time job. I wanted to go full time pursuing my dream of being self-employed. Plus the stress was getting insane at my job. Multiple emotional breakdowns at work are never a good sign. I used the money in my 401k to buy a new computer so I can create art without relying on borrowing a computer. In November 2013, I reopened my new shop on Society 6. Looking back, I know I shouldn’t have left the first time. It was free to post listings and I had a lot of work in the shop before I closed it. I used the first name of my username on youtube and my birth year as the shop title. I love this title a lot more. It feels more me.
2013 has been very rocky. I’ve lost hundreds of designs, been penniless and almost found myself out on the streets, kind of lost my mind, and went through a heavy depression. I don’t know what the future holds me but I hope it’s positive.
2014 Update: Well… This year hasn’t been great either. I do have enough cash to buy this domain again when it expires. I guess that’s the biggest positive I’ve had this year. I won’t lose my website again and I didn’t lose any of my artwork. I’m still very much in a desperate situation and life hasn’t turned around for the better. I’m not going to be too optimistic about next year. I don’t want to succumb to defeat but I feel I already lost this battle. I crave the day when my work becomes embedded in my veins. In some ways it is but this reality is crushing my soul daily.
Beginning 2015 Update: I’m going to update this page every year. I’m feeling more positive about my work with color. Well… I feel more driven to make my dream become a reality. I will get to Paris. I am determined to get there solely by my work with color. I will update this page at the end of the year.
Beginning 2017 Update: 2016 wasn’t that good for me personally but I’m back on my travel series journey. I hope to begin my next travel series album in March 2017. You can read more about my decision to start my journey on this post. I talk about what happened between the time I stopped working on this website.
Beginning 2018 Update: 2017 was an eye opening year for me. Many low points. However, I was able to continue my travel series and create my first album outside of my hometown in Hartford, CT. It was an incredible life changing experience. I was also able to go to Cape May, NJ. Currently in the process of completing that album. I have big plans for 2018. Hopefully, I can continue traveling.
Beginning 2019 Update: Well… 2018 was interesting, to say the least. I wasn’t able to travel to a new destination for a travel series album. However, I did finish my Cape May Travel Series album and created my first short film. A film that I thought was literally impossible to create in the past. All in all… 2018 wasn’t too bad. I am aiming for Chicago and Paris this year. Go big or go home. Can’t wait for the next update.
Beginning 2020 Update: I’m a bit sad about writing this one. It’s a new decade and I really want to be optimistic, really… So here I am now being optimistic. Chicago and Paris didn’t happen in 2019 but I was able to continue my travel series in Annapolis, MD. It was a great experience. I made my first album video featuring footage from my travels in Annapolis with an abstract twist. It was a great step in the right direction for this travel series. I’m grateful I was to able to have a chance to continue the journey. I only hope I can go to Chicago this year or at least somewhere. Time is running out on making my goal.
Close to the end of 2021 Update: This one is very late. Je sais… A lot of things have happened between the last update and now. Covid-19 happened, long story on how that changed things. I won’t mention everything that happened because some of it is unrelated to this website. I had to cancel my trip to Chicago. The money I saved for the trip I had to use because my car was vandalized again. A few months later, my car was completely wrecked while parked in front of a church (another long story) so no more spontaneous trips like Annapolis or anywhere because I’m literally terrified to drive again. I was also in an accident before the car was wrecked that I feel distorted things mentally, an extremely long story. Midway into 2020, I had a plan to make additional income which failed in 2021, resulting in wasting close to 450 dollars and a year of my life. A few other things happened, one very tragic, which made me realize some harsh truths. At the end of the day, not at all optimistic about the future but I do have one more plan that I would love to execute. Yeah… I’m just insane at this point.
Beginning 2022 Update: I went on an adventure of lifetime for my birthday in December 2021. I traveled to Paris, France! OMG!!!! It was the most magical moment in my life to be inside the Eiffel Tower on my birthday. The last update I wrote was before my trip to Paris. I was planning the trip at the time but was still skeptical that it would actually happen, lol. I can’t say how much it meant to me to accomplish an ultimate dream. The best dream I’ve ever had in my life. Other than becoming a successful artist which at this point seems like pure fantasy in this reality. Just thinking about my trip to Paris makes me smile. Now, I’m working on my art album dedicated to Paris. I have huge plans! I also plan to do lots of advertising for this album. Shake things up. Do things I’ve never done before and why not? This is the album my soul was meant to make. I have to go big and step outside of comfort zones! The trip itself was a huge step outside of my comfort zone! Stay tuned…
Beginning 2024 Update (1/14/24): Ok, totally missed 2023. Sorry… Anyway. 2023 was a year of lots of productivity yet I couldn’t shake my depression at the start of the year (2023). 2022 was not good. I just lost it mentally shortly after coming back from my trip to Paris which led to some really horrible stuff, went into a really dark place, and towards the end of year some personal stuff happened that made things worse. However… I finished my Paris Travel Series album and went to Chicago. I mean… talk about completing life goals! It’s amazing yet… I couldn’t shake the emptiness I felt while being in Chicago and when I finished the Paris travel series album. Maybe I just don’t belong here anymore. I accomplished this one amazing thing that basically meant nothing to everyone except me and who am I? A nobody. Well… before I go off the deep end here, I have two final projects that I’m exploring this year. Hopefully to start and finish the Chicago album and I started a new shop featuring the travel series but in a different way.
WOW…. I’ve been updating this page for over ten years! Crazy… So much has happened since December 24th, 2013.
Photo Details: The GIF you see above is a motion video of a photo I took of myself in Paris on my birthday (12/09/21). I was standing on the balcony in my hotel room at the time. An added fun fact: I took the photo shortly after visiting the Eiffel Tower. I did edit the photo a little bit by adding some color to the background (a light brown coloring that kind of goes well with my skin tone) and smoothing the edges but didn’t make any big changes. It’s still me and the Eiffel Tower is in the background. The room had an awesome view of the tower. If you plan to visit Paris, I recommend get a room at Hotel Duquesne Eiffel.
Well… that’s the story of the shops and the beginning of this website. Read on if you want to know more about me.
Have you ever felt a sweetness in your soul when you’re doing something you love to do? It’s taken me quite a few years to get to this point in my life. I feel like being on the road of color is the path of my dreams. Every day is a stepping stone to becoming one with the dream and beyond.
I am a passionate person. I believe it’s never too late to start living your dreams. As Sofia Serrano says, “Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around”. I believe I’m doing that with my artwork. I love color and music with all of my being. I create traditional/digital abstract artwork. I also create music videos out of my artwork as well. It gives me a chance to explore new music and color every day and it feels so awesome and sweet to me.
I first ventured into the realm of color back in 2002. I created a Sailor Jupiter fan fiction website called TheLoneArcher. Click here to see one of the web designs I made with the website. I opened that website while I was still in college in late 2001. My nickname was kebbie, which stands for my initials KEB and I added BIE at the end. At the time, I didn’t have a clue about website design. So, instead of having basic, crappy layouts, I started to create my own designs, early 2002. It was hard at first but I began to love it. I love finding the right colors that match pictures I wanted to use for designs. I was beginning to love it as much as writing the fan fiction itself.
One thing that I always remembered during that time is that I would get crazy headaches, trying to perfect the code and designs. It was one of the reasons why I stopped designing websites from scratch. If you missed one semicolon or quotation mark then your whole page is messed up until you find the error. I began to hate coding. Once I closed the website, I took a break. I started to dabble in different websites by making blogs, fanlistings, just to keep designing new layouts. It wasn’t as frequent as the fan fiction website. I also began to love photo manipulation. I started making wallpapers out of my hobbies: movies, video games, actors, anything that I loved! My world of color started at that point.
Working with colors, blends, and patterns slowly became my true love in this life. There’s always something new to discover with color. Until recently, I always thought of my designs as a hobby. I met a few great people that helped me realized that what I love to do was actually art. In my mind, if I wasn’t actually drawing my designs I wasn’t a real artist. I have no formal training. I am self-taught so it didn’t help in the confidence department. However, it’s not the tools that matter but the passion you have for your art.
My tools to create art has changed throughout the years. I remember starting with Ulead software to create nice web designs. Then I found the love of my life… Paintshop Pro! I started using this program in 2005. This program is beyond awesome! I won’t use anything else. It does everything I want for it to do and more! For years, I relied on Paintshop for all my design needs. Around 2011, I started making abstract patterns in Microsoft Excel. I would use the designs in Excel to make abstract designs in Paintshop. In 2012, I started using pastels to go in a traditional direction. I didn’t have much success. However, one of my friends suggested that I blend my traditional drawings with my abstract art. When I did that, I felt like I hit a sweet spot in my work. The missing piece… Now I use pencil drawings with PaintShop Pro for my work. It’s the perfect mix for me. I love to create geometric shapes and dabble with 3d shapes (mainly boxes).
In 2018, I figured out a way to create motion with my art designs using design scripts I created in Paintshop. I think my eyes were officially open on the direction I wanted to take with my art. I made a short film called Ambler Drive. Now, I plan on making more videos featuring my art designs as part of the scenery itself and reacting to everything within nature.
I started my youtube channel in June 2012. Originally, I thought I wanted to record the process to see how I create designs in Paintshop Pro. When I added music with my artwork, I loved the combination. I thought it looked kind of cool. I think it adds more to the design, a nice extension. To me, it feels like a proper visual sendoff to the design process. At that point, I’m done the design and it feels nice to connect it with music. It feels like I’m part of the beats somehow.
Searching for music to use is like going on a long journey. I always try to find the right song that goes with the colors used to make the design. The websites I search for music are Soundcloud and Freemusicarchive. I only use free music because I don’t want to run into any copyright issues. However… if you’re reading this page and would like to have your music featured on my YouTube channel, don’t hesitate to contact me. Head over to the contact page and fill out your request. I love discovering new music.
Need some more background? 😉 If not, feel free to start looking at my artwork!
I have a rigid work ethic in everything, especially with my loves. I don’t like to give up on my dreams or anything that I believe can be successful. I work hard and play hard…
I am a movie addict! I love movies that make you think outside of reality. Question yourself and perception… Well that’s how I see my favorite movies. Top five: Vanilla Sky, Inception, The Matrix. The Shawshank Redemption always gives me hope and confidence to be the best version of myself. I also love Defending Your Life. I can watch this movie every single day. It’s awesome. Honorable mentions are The Truman Show, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Pillow Talk, and The Game. I also love foreign films especially French movies.
I love to travel. I love to see things I haven’t seen before, taste new food, explore different perspectives of life. I wish I could travel more. The one place I would like to see before I die is Paris, France. I hope to live there one day.
My favorite artist is Voka. I love his work. His use of color is simply amazing. To me, he is a living dream. This video is my dream. To be in Paris… To have my art shown in Paris… Wow! It’s the ultimate dream for me. Two things that would make my life complete.
My favorite genre’s of music are Electronic, New Wave, Synth Pop, and Post Rock.
My favorite decade ever is the 80’s. I was born in this decade: December 9th, 1983. I believe it was the decade of flamboyance. I love everything about this decade. The hair, clothes, music, movies… everything!
I am addicted to Green Tea. I drink it every day. Some days I drink 4 to 5 cups… The most cups of tea I had in one day was 8. It’s the best tea, ever!
I’m not a big sweets fan. I love sour, mostly bitter tasting foods. I love to eat lemons. I used to love chocolate in my teenage years but now I rarely eat chocolate.
I’ve been studying French for almost 4 years. I use two apps: Memrise and Duolingo. It’s been off and on throughout that time but consistent. I think the longest time off was 3 months because I was upset about ending a 182 day streak. It was devastating at the time because it was my longest streak to date. I remember being on the app and falling sleep before midnight. I woke up the next day and let’s just say it wasn’t a great way to start the morning. I am nowhere near fluent but… Je parle un peu français. I feel like I can read the language on an immediate level but only can speak it at a beginner level. I currently have a 952 day streak on Duolingo. (1/25/2022). 😀
My nickname on several websites featuring my artwork is centered around the word beatnik. Why Beatnik? I wanted to find a name that closely resembled my personality or I guess how others see me. I love the definition of beatnik: It’s a person who is nonconformist and unconventional. I’ve been called weird all my life. Based on my taste in music, what I like and don’t like, because I always stare at the skies, just being me is weird to some people. That’s perfectly alright… My artwork is very abstract. I like to use 3d shapes and blend lots of colors. It has been seen as “chaotic”, “no structure”, “dirty”, just a mess by others. I love what I do with my artwork. I love my loves and that’s not going to change because someone else thinks it’s not the norm, bad art, and it’s supposedly weird.
My purpose for creating this website is to have a permanent home on the web. Throughout the past 10 years, I’ve made dozens of websites. Now, this website is all about me. I want to document everything so I can look back years from now and hopefully see a progression and a crazy ride.
Enjoy your stay here! Discover new beats and color. 🙂 ♥ Katherine