I’ve been considering some shifts lately…Currently, my company is called "Beautiful de K, LLC," but I mostly just do business as my name, "Katy Casper," because I’m finding that the LLC name is lost on most people. Here are the reasons I chose it initially and why it is meaningful to me:
My mission is to cultivate joy and vitality by connecting people to each other and to the land where we live, work, and play. Connecting to the land, to me, means replugging ourselves back into the cycles of nature. This includes embracing the aging, passing, and recycling of all things as nutrients for other things. Beautiful decay = Beauty rising from the ashes!
I like to work with upcycled materials, like painting murals on old buildings to make them look fresh again, giving them a new life (beautiful decay).
Our region of the U.S. has lots of Spanish-speaking residents, so much of my art is bilingual and/or multicultural. The name is multicultural in its cleverness because it's supposed to imply that I make beautiful things, literally translating to Beautiful of Katy (de K), but then of course referencing the things above related to beautiful decay.
My current logo is a black and white sunburst with an overlay of a Fibonacci spiral - referencing the "code" that we find all over in nature like plants, galaxies, etc. as well as cycles, which are really spirals if you visualize them over the span of time.
I am considering a rebrand, but am not sure if I should go with this other name I have been considering (Kayu, explained below), keep it simple and stick with just my name, Katy Casper, or maybe come up with something new entirely that actually describes what I do. For instance, my mural mentor’s company is called, "Paint the World Murals."
Some artists have their cool "street" names. I'm definitely more of a tree-hugging hippie than a cool street artist. I literally talk to the trees when I need hard questions answered, and oddly enough, they seem to talk back. I also am obsessed with personal growth and there is this one company in particular whose material I absolutely love the most. It's called Mindvalley and is located in Malaysia. This may all seem unrelated, but I had this thing happen to me over and over again: I would type an email and then go to sign my name and instead of typing "Katy," I would accidentally type "Kayu." It was so frustrating, but then after about the hundredth time, I finally decided maybe someone is trying to tell me something so I looked it up. Apparently, it means "wood" in Malay (the language spoken in Malaysia). Coincidentally, for my studio work, my favorite material to work with is wood (see my “Wall Sculptures”). One day, I will travel to Malaysia because it is clearly calling to me…
Also, I've been getting these voices in my head, or what I sometimes call "downloads," that repeatedly say: "Regenerate the land!" "Regenerate the land!" I do try and work with this theme in my studio pieces and murals, but I just feel like it is not enough as we spiral faster and faster toward planetary devastation. Have you seen "Kiss the Ground" on Netflix yet? If not, please watch it because it summarizes quite a bit of what I learned in my Permaculture Design Course of what must be done to stop and reverse climate change - we can fix our health and the health of the planet at the same time and it is surprisingly simple with principles of regenerative agriculture. We can sequester all the excess carbon we have put into the atmosphere if we keep the soil covered, minimize soil disturbance, maximize crop diversity, maintain living roots in the ground year-round, and integrate livestock. (Other important subcomponents of this are to eliminate the use of chemicals and GMO’s, stop clear-cutting old-growth forests, and planting lots of new trees.) So, with that said, I want to design and install regenerative urban farming art installations that I am calling "Edible Artscapes(TM)," which are edible/medicinal gardens and food forests with brightly colored, integrated art elements as offerings to Mother Earth like murals, sculptures, water elements, pergolas, bird baths/feeders, bird/bug houses, etc. They will be multi-sensory, interactive experiences that reconnect us to the land, return us to Eden, help to heal ourselves, the other creatures, and the planet!
With this last part in mind especially, I am am wondering if there is a name and logo for my company that can bring this all together in a way that is clear and concise. I’m open to hearing your feedback if you want to leave any comments!