I'M KATIE VIANELLO

I always knew I was going to be an artist, I just couldn't settle on type. As a little girl, I marveled at the treasures of the Art Institute of Chicago and declared that I was going to be a painter. Sitting home at my little desk, I drew comic strips and declared that I was going to be a cartoonist. When I entered Columbia College of Chicago, I declared I was going to be an illustrator. When I graduated, I declared I was going to be a tattoo artist, and I did.

There was something always in the back of my mind, though, that kept calling me to go back through the years and revisit those old ideas. In my free time away from the tattoo shop, I worked in various media, trying to find a direction. In the early 2000s, I started working with ink and brush. I never fancied myself a painter at all, yet it seemed to be a perfect fit. When I wasn't tattooing, I would paint and occasionally show in galleries.

In early 2020, Covid forced all the tattoo shops into a shutdown and I found myself looking into an uncertain future. I dusted off my art supplies and started painting again. As I always have, I took a wild pivot in my style. This time I faced down my longtime nemesis: Oil painting. In the past I had repeatedly tried, failed and deemed oil painting completely out of my wheelhouse. Today I joyfully paint in oils as much as I can alongside my ink and brush work. I'll keep tattooing as long as my joints will allow, it's fun to have the best of both worlds. I have one foot in the rock and roll lifestyle and the other in the peaceful world of a painter.