Why I'm done speaking to Germans about migration

Photo by hollandevans via Pixabay

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I’m done trying to bargain for a shred of empathy when speaking to Germans on the topic of migration.

The reason I say “Germans” is for the simple fact that I live in Germany and therefore I spend the most time conversing with them in daily life.

I’m done with having every normal, daily conversations be ruined by hateful speech about anonymous migrants in the abstract; a broad brush painted over people whose lives we do not know. 

You know how when you have that one friend, and every time you get together, all they do is complain about person X, until eventually you think to yourself, MY GOD, get a grip?? Yeah, you sound like that person.

I’m vetoing every conversation that goes anywhere near this topic. Why?

Because these conversations are often devoid of any factual evidence of what causes and “controls” migration (mostly the illegal variant is implied here). And because in these conversations, scapegoating and ire tend to steamroll basic human empathy. It’s tiring.

Migration is not a problem nor is it a solution. Migration is part of humanity. Migration is part of my personal family history; without it I would not exist. It might even be part of yours. Are you a “bad” migrant, or a “good” one?

I’m tired of people not thinking critically about the social issues affecting us, seeing the bigger picture, and instead opting to make other disadvantaged peoples their abstract enemies. 

I’m tired of people lacking self-awareness in how our emotions have been instrumentalised by politicians, who hijack fear and anger.

I am done having this conversation, because it is often brought to the table unannounced, without anyone asking. Again and again, it’s a needlessly politicsied topic that creeps into our everyday lives, threatening to break us.

It just frustrates me. A lot. As a counter to this:

I recommend the work of Hein de Haas, a sociologist who has studied migration for over three decades and knows a lot more on this topic than you and I. 

And in the mean time, I will fight for the issues I care about.

(Edit1: obviously migrants are not just doing “back-breaking labour” that Germans are less likely to do; we have labour shortages across the board that migrants help fill. See also: elderly care as well as our health system, STEM, hospitality, etc.)

(Edit 2: for tone 🙂 I was quite emotional when I wrote this entry the first time.)

When creative projects take much longer than you planned and you kind of feel like a failure (but pushing through anyway)

Title Image: Das Blaue Haus, Holbein Acryla Gouache and Schmincke Acrylic Ink.
A painting I finally finished after 2 months, in a total of approx. 10-15 hours.

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My life and the pace in which I make art have changed a lot these past two years.

The biggest change is that I became employed, giving me more security, and more freedom, in some ways, but also putting more constraints on my free time. I might be wrong, but this seems to be the trend among many illustrators and people wanting to pursue this path nowadays.

The second biggest change is that my ex-illustration agency let go of me last year, and ever since then, I’ve had to act as my own marketer, negotiator and accountant, on top of everything else. 

This year I vowed that I wouldn’t let that stop me, that I could embrace the indie spirit and make it on my own, work on my own dream projects, and be the illustrator I feel that I am and always wanted to be. However, I ended up putting way too much on my plate, and by April/May, I was operating on perpetual stress mode. 

Bamboo Dreams, I explain my full process here!

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I finally had to admit that, no, I could not work on 2 or 3 extra projects after work. That being only part-time employed still means that a significant chunk of my week is already occupied. And that between grocery shopping and cleaning and pet care and reading mails and starting a community project and whatever else is required to stay functional, regeneration time is a non-negotiable. 

I finally had to admit that whatever I wanted to achieve, whatever dreams I wanted to fulfil, well, those would just have to wait a little longer. And maybe that’s a good thing, because time, and the challenges and epiphanies that come with it, often crystallise the best parts out of us.

Making stickers + sketching in Padua and my local café

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Though I haven’t read Atomic Habits by James Clear, there’s an idea from it that I really like: Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you want to become. 

So maybe I no longer have all the time in the world, but what is one small thing I can do today, this week, this month, to keep the ball rolling? 

Song forever.

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A little doodle in memory of my dog. Doodle whatever makes me smile. Finish that painting I started two months ago. Go out sketching with a friend. Dye and print some t-shirts to print on further down the line. 

I promise, people, there is so much I wish to work on and share, if only it weren’t for the time. For now, this will have to do. 

Dyeing some t-shirts for printing down the line…

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If you’re anything like me, I invite you to commiserate, but to also keep believing in yourself and your capabilities. Reflect on and list all the ways you’re already working as an artist, illustrator, etc. and hold onto that. Use that to keep showing up to the page, no matter what small way it is.

At the end of the day, I am an illustrator because I care deeply about the pictures that I make. Please, please do not confuse this with “I would do it, even for free” — no! I believe in fair compensation for artists, because artwork is work. But even stronger than that, I feel a movement within me, pushing me towards more handmade-ness, more imperfection — because nowadays, pictures are so easy to make, even AI can do it. I believe we should celebrate our humanity in art, lest we lose it completely. 

Sketching in Padua earlier in July. Photo by my new friend, Imke.

An illustrated homage to Bamboo Scaffolding in Hong Kong: BAMBOO DREAMS

“Bamboo Dreams”, May 2025, approx. 120 x 148 cm, watercolour, acrylic ink, colour pencil on paper.

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What and Why

Bamboo scaffolding, used in Hong Kong building construction for multiple centuries, will soon be phased out. “Bamboo Dreams” is an homage to this cultural artefact in Hong Kong’s high-rise cityscape, and plays with the emotive distortion of architecture, as is often the case in our dreams.

I made this work to hold on to the memory of bamboo scaffolding — for a group exhibition with my art collective PULPXIX, titled “Rescaled”.

Bamboo Dreams, May 2025

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What I learnt in this process:

• Not working in isolation. I was about throw all of my social life out of the window for this project, but soon discovered that contact to my friends was precisely the thing that helped me move it forward. Thanks to my boyfriend I had access to a large scale scanner and light table (for enlarging and tracing), and thanks to another friend I had access to a plotter (for printing the draft). No way I would have gotten the art from draft to final at the same speed, with my regular A4 scanner/printer and A3 light table.

• Leaving space for mystery. I left a lot of negative space in this work; not usual for my detail-obsessed self. But I’m learning that these open spaces leave the viewer room to breathe, to think. Not every space has to be filled, not every mark has to be completed, not every question answered — leave room for the viewer to answer these questions themselves. Side note: trying to keep all those white spaces pristine was still a challenge in itself!

Doing some colour studies (or as I like to call them, “painting rehearsals”) and deciding on a palette were helpful in feeling confident for the final painting.

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• Letting the work tell you where it wants to go. With every completed project I learn, and re-learn, that things don’t usually turn out 100% as you planned. Maybe the piece works better with a detail added or left out (usually the latter). It’s a huge lesson in staying present, I think, not “holding on to the past”, keeping an open mind, and going with the flow.

First idea and final sketch.

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• Presentation is half the work. Now that I’ve been in the group exhibition game for a while, I know that there is so much you can bring out of an artwork, beyond framing and hanging and calling it a day — an afterthought. Presentation is integral to the work itself, just as important, if not more. All of this takes time, a steady hand, focus. I think I spent about 2.5 hours mounting my piece to the wall, making sure it was centred and the gaps in between were even. I even made a last minute change, cutting out part of one of the panels, so that the whole looked more balanced. 

Two out of my references photos! Many of these images became part of the final painting, as I traced directly over them. However, I still needed to adjust for scale/size — imagination required! I also found it helpful to study a piece of bamboo from real life, to get all the colour and texture nuances in the painting.

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• Don’t make things harder than they need to be. Having said all of the above… I think there is so much internal holding on to unnecessary narratives that make us do things in more complicated ways than they need to be. For me, this internal narrative is that I need to prove that I am the perfect draftswoman who doesn’t need visual references and aids. In this process, I tried to let of of that: I did not reference everything from life, I collaged and traced (my own) photos for visual material. Not everything is about “proving” yourself. Just get from A to B. 

Draft to final… I do not have a photo of this anymore, but just imagine lots of little panels stuck together, scanned and enlarged, printed on one big piece of paper, then traced over and painted!

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Have you had any AHA-moments in your creative process lately? No matter if it’s on a mental, practical or technical level… feel free to share in the comments below!

And… I’m curious about what kind of insights you would like to know from my creative process, whether its more mindset, or time management or technique… again, let me know in the comments below!

Printing t-shirts again: progress update

In short: a few stream-of-consciousness doodles and encouraging messages later and we are back to silkscreen printing t-shirts!

Here’s a glimpse of what I have been working on so far: 

anti-fascist froggie t-shirt start to finish; illustration ©️ Kat J. Weiss

my soul is mine t-shirt start to finish; illustration ©️ Kat J. Weiss

Das Blaue Haus t-shirt start to finish; design ©️ Kat J. Weiss

Not available for purchase yet, but I’ll keep you updated!

(I have a few technical and bureaucratic hurdles to move past)

Special thanks to my friend Harry Morrison for letting me use his print studio to make the screens!

one of the screens I am using to the print the shirts.

Big Illustration projects I'm leaving 2024 with; New Illustration projects I'm starting in 2025

Going out in 2024

Honey label for a private client with a small bee-keeping business

Illustration ©️ Kat J. Weiss / Jar mockup by Pixpine

Book cover and print for my fellow artist friend’s photo book Transatlantic — special edition

Illustration ©️ Kat J. Weiss

An installation with an anti-war message. I wasn’t all too happy with my output, but we can only learn by trial and error — making art within the context of my art community, PULPXIX is exactly the room to do that. At the end of the day, I can only hope that my message comes across: we mustn’t accept as a normality, the plight and suffering of children in the world’s horrific wars. 

Photo of my installation ©️ Sebastian Schubmehl, graphic designer

In case you’re feeling charitable, here’s an organisation that I think is doing terrific work in this field:

What's in store for 2025

T-SHIRTS RELOADED...! 

What I had in mind. Illustration ©️ Kat J. Weiss / T-shirt mockup by Mockups-design.com

After a long hiatus in the t-shirt biz, I would like to start something this January!

My lovely friends have been encouraging me to turn my recent doodles in t-shirts. It’s always surprising when something like that happens; that’s how the last t-shirts got started, too. Perhaps there is something about the honesty in expression that people like about doodles?

“Food Fantasy” continued

“Gelato”, Illustration ©️ Kat J. Weiss

I would like to continue my series of placing people and food in surreal contexts, exploring the communal significance of certain cultural foods. For instance, dim sum in Hong Kong or the doner kebab in Germany are foods that bring people across the board to identify with each other. And I think that’s beautiful?

Only problem is, I am a vegetarian (often incorporating veganism into my daily life) and I don’t feel comfortable depicting meat — which a lot of cultural foods still include. Hmm. So the idea might be just to focus on classic vegetarian dishes from different cultures, which I hope won’t be too niche to be relatable.

Illustration Pricing FAQ

The price of an illustration depends on a few factors:

• Exclusivity – exclusive or non-exclusive rights

• The number of print or digital media applications, e.g. one or more print media, online, social media, television, etc.

• The scope of use – how many editions of the illustration will be published, and/or how large is the target audience

• Duration of use – single use to 1 year, 3 years, 10 years, unlimited

• Geography of use – how many countries, regions (e.g. DACH region), continents will the illustration appear in, should it be international?

• Size of artwork

• Level of detail – background or no background, how many people should be in the illustration, what subject matter should be included, full colour, black & white or only linework

Based on these factors, I can quote your project accordingly.

Sample Prices

Based on “Honorarwerk Illustration“ (2019), an overview of industry-standard prices across all illustration markets in Germany. It was published by Illustratoren Organisation, a German illustration workers’ union.

• Editorial illustration for magazine or newspaper, print, single page, non-exclusive rights, DACH-region, single use to 1 year – €550

• School book illustration, print, DACH-region, exclusive rights, single edition, simple motif in colour – €80

• Children’s or young adult book cover illustration, print, DACH-region, exclusive rights, simple or moderately complex style – €750

• Poster or flyer (advertising), 1 print medium + online publication, non-exclusive rights, simple style with limited colour, limited editions, single use to 1 year, Germany – €500

A little bit of Hot Pot for your home – Fine Art Prints

I decided to restock one of my favourite prints – reproductions of a watercolour piece I painted almost two years ago. Indeed, I am no longer in possession of the original, as I sold it last year! 🥲

I just realised that I never explicitly talked about which corner of my brain this piece sprang from. One, I am a nostalgic person, and this piece is an ode to hearty, cacophonous nights spent at steamy, smoky hot pot restaurants in Hong Kong. Because I love my friends.

One of the first sketches, plus me posing for reference lol

It is an on-the-nose depiction of Hong Kong as a melting pot; how I remember it and how I would love it to remain. And finally, it is an ode to food, and how it brings people together.

Hot Pot, 30 x 40.8 cm (outside 34 x 44.8 cm) prints, on Hahnemühle Photo Rag – €65
Currently 5x in stock. Shipping from Germany. Please follow the link to e-mail an enquiry!

I know it seems odd that I don't have an official set up for this, but I’d much rather personalise the delivery options as shipping prices are THROUGH THE ROOF at the moment!

I’m open to any kind of delivery option: regular mail, in person, etc. – possibilities are endless as long as we stay creative. I’ll pack the print nice and safe, but liability is limited.