I first met Catherine a few months ago when I volunteered for the “SeeCleanJC” effort. We bonded while picking up trash and cigarette butts (gross) on a beautiful Sunday morning. She is a super cool, down-to-earth chick that also happens to be an artist, art teacher and athlete. Her story intrigued me and it was just a matter of time before we met again.

A few weeks ago she invited me to check out a new mural she was putting up in Downtown Jersey City as part of the Jersey City mural project. Catherine is crazy talented, it was so fun getting to know her, she is an asset to the Jersey City artist community…. and what a babe!!

What’s your name? My name is Catherine Haggarty.

What do you do? I’m a painter, curator, and teacher.

So let’s first talk about what you’re doing now. So right now I’m working on a three series painting. I call them paintings and not necessarily murals as much because that’s how I view them—as extensions of my studio. So although they’re on the public form, I want them to be read as paintings, but they’re on the wall so I guess technically they’re murals.

So what’s the concept? This piece I am working on is titled Purple Run IV and is the largest version of an abstract painting I have been working on since 2013. It’s form is abstract but it is derived from a very specific form – as most of the paintings I make are.

And what about the two other ones you have here? The middle pieces are small and minimal for a reason. I take a lot of notes and I am constantly working on how to remember the flow of ideas that run through my mind daily. When a drawing deserves the time and effort to make it into a painting, I will mark it with a check next to it. As a way for me to remember and use them as markers for the narrative I am building in images.

These four small blocks are re-occuring images and themes for me. They reference kids in many ways but allow me the opportunity to expand and contract when needed.

And what about this one? They’re all really different too. Yeah. This one is just an animal of a project. This is based off a painting called “Creature Fear” that I made in 2014. This painting was very, very difficult to make happen on this scale, but I was thinking very loosely about the idea of shadows and plants behind window blinds and I thought about the kind of company that keeps you busy and keeps your imagination going in a cramped city. So that’s just a personal thing, but seeped into my work over the past four years, I mean I want people to see a lot of things in it too, it’s not that didactic. I want it to be imaginary and I want it to be fun.

I love it. How long have you been a painter? I’ve been a painter for ten or twelve years and I’ve only been in Jersey City for three, but I love it here.

How did you get into painting? So when I was a kid, the first “art” thing I did was create sculptures out of trash and recyclables. I didn’t have a ton of formal training on painting until way later in life. Paint for me is romantic yet difficult. It affords me the opportunity to be open to outcomes in image making that I wouldn’t find elsewhere. I have been consistently making paintings for about ten years and I see another 50 as long as I stay healthy. I love this work.

How would you define your art? I think that if I’m good that I wouldn’t be able to define it. If I’m making good work I would be open to many solutions and outcomes. Ideally, I want to be surprised and curious to continue what is essentially, a pretty insular and unpredictable lifestyle. I don’t really want to be able to predict the kind of work I will make in the future, but if I am making bold and genuine work – I am confident there will be a consistent thread that runs through the work.

So what inspires you to create? I don’t know, I mean I think there [are] certain challenges I give myself like “How to make a really uncomfortable image,” “How to make a bold image,” “What’s something that a young female painter hasn’t painted?” also what’s really representative of my life. So if you’re an athlete and you’re paying attention to the kind work you do with children; that’s really rich subject matter ‘cause that’s the life I’m living so that’s inevitably inspiring me. I don’t depart my paintings from some theory, I depart from daily experiences—so I teach kids and I run a lot—those things inevitably become part of the visual vocabulary.

Where do you teach? I teach in West Orange at a public school, Roosevelt Middle School, and it’s awesome.

So you’re an art teacher? Yeah. I teach painting, ceramics, drawing, all the facets of art to middle school kids.

How cute! Oh yeah, it’s definitely fun. I never really thought I’d be teaching this age group, but I’m actually really happy I am because it’s really humbling and it gives me some good perspective.

And you’re a runner also? Yes, I am. I ran the NYC Marathon in 2014 which was a great experience and challenge. Athletics in general have played such an important part of my development as a woman and a person. Running saves me just as much as painting does.

Yeah, I always see you in gym stuff. I know, this is how I operate. I was always an athlete first and that’s how I’ve always navigated the world and it’s given me a lot of confidence and for a lot of years I thought that I had to become more of a strict artist and less of an athlete and dedicate [to] that. And I just know now they both feed me in different ways. So when I run, I think about paintings and I’ve trained for a marathon—I’m out there for three hours by myself—I imagine paintings, I put up things that are in my pathway that I think are curious that allows me to slow down in a weird way.

Do you have any upcoming projects? Yes, I will be showing a black and white painting in a publication for the Sluice Art Fair in London this fall designed by Yifat Gat from Look & Listen which is based in Chamas, France. I will also be in a group show curated by David Turchin at Shoestring press and some other shows in the fall and spring of 2016.

Along with this, my studio (535) at Mana Contemporary will be open to the pubic during Mana Contemporary’s quarterly Open House, Sunday October 18th from 1-7pm.

What brought you to Jersey City? I just wanted a city and I wanted it to be near New York and I just couldn’t move to Bushwick or Brooklyn yet because I had some family in New Jersey. I just took a chance literally three years ago and walked into a local bar and was like, “Can I bartend? I need a new job and a place to live.” I was living in Philly and things changed, I moved on and I needed a city near New York and this just actually worked out perfectly. I didn’t even have that teaching job when I started here; I was just bartending and scraping by.

Where were you bartending? The Hamilton Inn. So I bartended there for a year and a half and they were really sweet and they let me work one-day shifts and they let me accommodate my schedule and they were really nice guys.

What’s your favorite Jersey City hangout spot? I’m local, I live right here. Union Republic’s a great place to go for good food, anywhere Downtown like Dull Boy are really good for drinks.

How do people find you? My Instagram and my website [has] all my contact information is on there as well as my profile at Mana Contemporary.

Anything else you’d like people to know about you? Well, ideally the paintings create a story I could never. I am interested in helping people through art and storytelling. Ultimately making art is a hard and strange life. I feel if I do any good in life it will be through teaching and being fearless in my pursuits as both an artist and person. I am passionate and resolute in my desire to be great in whatever I take on.

Are you going to do more public paintings? I think I might do more public paintings I just have to find the time. I do a lot of things but whatever I do I try to do them really, really well. I have to just pick and choose.

What about being a woman in the art world? I think that’s a great question. Often times, it works to my advantage honestly & other times I find I have to push harder to be taken seriously. In the end every profession has its downfalls and historically, women end up battling harder. However, I am not terribly interested in thinking about this sort of thing. I only know what I am capable of and what I can control. I know if I commit and invest in the life I want, I will create it. There is no question I will. Like any big venture, whether it be a marathon, teaching, public art, or painting as a career – it takes time and diligence. I will set a great example for my students, my peers and the people in my life to show what it takes to create the life you want – not the path of comfort and certainty.

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