My Story
Hi, I’m Rosie and welcome to my world!
I am the artist-illustrator behind Little Cat Designs.
Based in Leipzig, Germany, I specialise in hand-painted, heartwarming greetings cards and bespoke illustrations and artwork.
Here in Little-Cat-Land there is peace, friendship, gentle humour, music,
a slowing of pace and a connection with nature.
How did I come to create things for a living?
It's always fun to get to know people better. If you are interested to find out my path to a creative life, and my core beliefs, just keep reading! I wonder if any of my experiences strike a chord with you? Drop me a line if they do. You can email me right here. I would love to hear from you.
It’s quite a long read, though, and if you haven’t the stomach for it I invite you to skip happily to the conclusion at the end here!
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin…..
Imagine a large, flat, green field surrounded with lively hedges. There is small flock of white geese grazing on the grass to one side of our view and on the other there is a victorian, red-brick farmhouse , nestling into a small patch of woodland. This is where grew up, with my siblings, in a quiet corner of Lancashire in England. Everything was very green because it rained a LOT, but stillness and nature were to be found in abundance. We even had a pair of rare barn owls living on the farm.
I was a very shy child and found it difficult to make friends. Companionship for me came from the ready supply of farm kittens; giving them all suitable names (I still have the intricate and highly accurate cat family tree I constructed), watching and learning about their individual quirks and characters and making sure they all learnt good manners.
Living in the middle of nowhere did have some advantages. As kids we could make as much noise as we liked. And with no mobile phones or social media to distract us, we each learnt a handful of musical instruments and all played in the county youth orchestras and bands. We even had our own, seasonal family band which we reformed yearly to go busking at Christmas.
Music has accompanied me throughout my life. I remember very clearly the thrill when my class teacher let me have a go on an orchestral triangle at the age of 5. I couldn't believe I could make such a beautiful sound and have an audible presence in the world without having to express myself verbally or interact with anyone else. Decades later I still get a sense of calm from blowing air through a flute or pulling a bow across violin strings. Music is also a great way to feel connected. I must have played in thousands of concerts over the years because I still love the immediate community feeling you get when playing in orchestras or collectively navigating your way through a string quartet.
As a kid I also spent large amounts of time observing, drawing and visually recording the world around me. Looking back now I see it was another form of meditation for me and another way to connect with nature. I started making individual birthday cards pretty early on. I had, after all, no easy access to shops and pocket money definitely didn‘t stretch far in those days. My first interior design make-over was my childhood bedroom, a 4-wall, painted mural depicting the sky and grassy fields. It was my indoor haven.
My obsession with cats probably lead me to study veterinary medicine at University. Unfortunately it wasn’t a good fit for me and I spent 6 unhappy years studying (during which time I also slipped in a Zoology degree to have a break from the relentlessness of being a vet student and also to learn more about wild animals) and another stressfull 9 years working as a vet. At that time I didn’t understand the importance of being true to myself and it eventually made me ill. It was only through my music and art practices and my wonderful friends that I managed to keep going during these difficult times and I am very grateful to all of them.
It wasn’t until I had my first child that I had the opportunity to leave the veterinary world behind, although I still felt a strong connection to cats and nature in general. "Ginger" the cat, who features a lot in my work, is based on my own dear cat, Timothy. My creative endeavours had stretched to making bunting, exhibiting and selling my paintings in local art exhibitions and renovating a house. I had already experimented more with interior design, learning about what impact good colour and design-choices can have.
For a time I was a peripatetic violin teacher and visited pupils in many different schools. I loved the work and was struck with the huge variety of learning environments between different schools, and the effect this had on the pupils. I taught in scruffy, leaking Portakabins with kids who were disillusioned and unmotivated to learn. It was as if their poor surroundings confirmed their low self-worth. In sunny, brightly coloured and clean rooms the kids were far more engaged. Food for thought!
In the meantime I gained a Diploma on the violin, learnt how to decorate birthday
cakes (thanks to Debbie Brown and her wonderful step-by-step books; I highly
recommend them) and started making my own violin whilst continuing to make
birthday and Christmas cards for friends and family.
Then suddenly, and purely by chance, I stumbled across and tumbled headlong into the world of face painting. I fell completely and utterly in love. Oh, the colours! The feel of a soft brush gliding on skin! The joy on the kids’ faces! I was immediately hooked.
And as fate would have it I had my very own young and willing army of canvases readily available at home (my kids have all got wonderfully spacious foreheads!). In the following few years I honed my face painting skills, eventually running my own professional face painting business, winning international face painting prizes and becoming a certified tutor at the International Face Painting School. Such a satisfying career, bringing so much colour and joy to people‘s lives.
By this time we had moved to Leipzig in Germany because of a job opportunity for my husband. The move was immediately a very isolating experience for me. I never came across other English-speakers and the culture and social interactions in this old East German city were, perhaps not surprisingly, very different to what I was used to.
I learnt how it is possible to feel very lonely, even when surrounded by people. I didn’t really feel ‘seen’. Nobody seemed interested in me as a person; I was just the English one that talked funny German (I spent 3 years on and off at language school by the way, it wasn’t as if I wasn’t trying my hardest!). As I was battling my way through daily life in this unfamiliar place with 3 small kids I sorely missed my support network of friends in the UK. The immediacy of having someone to turn to in your community is sort of thing you take for granted until it's gone. It became even more important for me to keep in contact with friends and family back home.
I have always been a letter-writer. I know it seems very old fashioned and unnecessary in this day and age but I know that even a short a note in someone’s own handwriting delivers me a thrill that a text message or email just can’t. I feel loved and appreciated when I get a card or letter through the post. I know that person has taken precious time out of their day to select a card they think I would like, find a pen, sit down and think about what they would like to say.
I wrote to a LOT of friends and family during that time using my own, hand-made cards. But with my card consumption going through the roof I had little time to keep up with demands of designing and making each card separately. I searched the shops for suitable cards but the available selection was terrible: computer generated images, photographs of generic flowers or kitschy scenes left over from the 1990s, often with grating or sarcastic messages. I felt no connection to them and none of the cards felt like they conveyed my thoughts and feeling to my friends and family back home. In addition, most of them had German writing printed on the front, not much good for what I needed. I had the idea to get cards printed with my own designs which reflected my values and sentiments.
As for many in the service industry, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic meant I could no longer safely carry out my work as a face painter. I missed the people-connections, the laughter, the joy, the colour and creative flair. And so, with no face painting opportunities on the horizon for the foreseeable future I decided to pivot full time back to my first passions of painting and card-design.
I did slowly start to make social connections here. I joined an orchestra (we get to play in the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, one of the world’s premier classical concert venues. Not bad for a girl who grew up in a field, I say) and met other musically-minded people. I gradually got to know a few parents at school. I also started growing vegetables and flowers in our small garden which continues to bring me a huge sense of peace and a connection to nature, watching the seasons changing close-up. In the garden I may often be alone but I am never lonely.
I have one final confession: I can proudly say I am a nerd. I love to learn. I love to collect knowledge and gain new insights about the world; it gives me a buzz and also makes me feel more a part of the interconnected web of life on earth. And the best thing is that the more you learn, the more amazing you will find life in general. Once you start it's hard to stop!
Anything can unexpectedly peak my interest (except perhaps world economics and social media trends; they just don’t do it for me). At the moment I am learning how to run an online business, whilst also lapping up wondrous facts about archeology, fungi, trees, art history, new dinosaur discoveries, gardening and neurodiversity (I will be forever grateful to my kids for opening my eyes to this), among other things. I am even learning to play the harp at the moment, a real challenge but it comes with its own built-in thrills. If you look closely you might just see these influences creeping into my work.
Now, here’s the cool (and very nerdy) bit......
(and welcome back to those who skipped to here, I can’t blame you for doing that)
It turns out that everything I need in order to thrive, is actually
deep-rooted in our evolutionary genetics as humans!
That means they are probably important for you, too. Our physique and brains have not changed since the first true humans emerged in Africa. What made Homo sapiens successful as a species at the start is still important in making us successful now (by ‘successful’ I mean being true to yourself, being an active member of the community, raising emotionally healthy children, and leaving the world a better place than when you found it).
Perhaps knowing this can make more sense as to why so many people suffer from stress and burnout. We just didn‘t evolve to run constantly at such a high stress levels and disconnect from our feelings and needs.
These are the things important to my (and probably your) wellbeing: *
*disclaimer: the following points are my own opinion only and are not to be taken as medical or legal advice
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Physical and emotional contact with friends, family and pets. Gossiping and sharing information was one of the important driving factors that allowed us to evolve large brains, live in groups and survive changing environments. Hugging releases neurochemicals like oxytocin and dopamine, which promote bonding and reduces stress. Keep in touch with your special people, ideally in person, otherwise with something special that uplifts them.
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Music. Music and art evolved with us humans from the start (and even before we were human) so it makes sense that it has such a grounding effect on us. To create is human. The earliest musical instruments found so far date back around 43,000 years. Music likely had mystical and spiritual meaning, as well as bonding and entertainment values. Sing or play an instrument, however badly, or just dance around the house to your favourite track.
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Art. Early human wall art was used in storytelling, spirituality and to commemorate people, animals and events in their challenging world. There is even an hypothesis that early humans used flickering firelight and shadows to make the painted characters on the walls apparently come alive. An early version of cinema, perhaps! For the artist themselves it is a form of meditation and self expression.
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Being curious. We have a unique ability to learn from others and share information. It was a key factor how early humans learnt to adapt and survive in rapidly changing enviroments. It can also be a very bonding experience. Keep those little grey cells active with life-long learning, whatever tickles your fancy. It’s never too late to start.
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Connecting with nature. An understanding of their immediate environment was crucial for survival for early man. These days it is known that getting your hands dirty in the soil benefits your gut bacteria (which in turn has a positive effect on your brain), connects you to the rhythms of the changing seasons and reduces stress. It‘s a chance to have a slow-down of pace and you will notice wondrous things going on in the natural world which will enrich your whole day. Take a walk amongst trees. Did you know that trees release hormones that are beneficial to your blood pressure and positive wellbeing (to my surprise I did actually hug a tree recently. It felt amazing)? If you can, have a go at growing something to eat, even if it is just a couple of tomatoes on a windowsill. They will be the most satisfying and tastiest things you will eat all year, I promise!
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Being kind to yourself and others. Being kind to yourself is often not easy but absolutely necessary. Eat well and move in whatever way suits you. There is also plenty of archeological evidence that elderly and sick people were cared for even in early human societies.
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Being yourself. Don’t try and be a carbon copy of someone else or blindly follow trends. You are unique and that is worth celebrating. You are enough. Your individuality brings unique gifts to the world and the people around you. What’s not wonderful about that? Let‘s also celebrate the uniqueness of those around you.
Well, it was a long and winding path to get here but I am now able to celebrate my true, creative self. And it`s truly freeing.
Are you celebrating your unique self?
I hope my art can help you honour the other unique and special people in your life.
Happy times!
Love,
Rosie
