We recently had the chance to connect with Kara Payton and have shared our conversation below.
Good morning Kara , we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
Well it is definitely a huge part of my non-work life that I am planning a wedding with my fiance’ Josh. We’re getting married in Utah this October. It’s been a lot of fun, a huge learning curve as in all my 20 years of wedding photography only had a glance at the true production that a wedding can be. It felt overwhelming at first and gave me a huge insight to what a lot of my brides were juggling. Being engaged at the same time as Taylor Swift has been pretty neat to think about, especially when both grooms are equally as awesome (though I’m biased to mine. 😉
I’ve never planned a wedding before so it was truly a neat childhood thing come true to lay out all the pictures of dresses, think about the flowers, and bringing all of our friends & family together. It’s been an amazing process to go through and my fiance’ is the best person to tackle it all with.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Kara Payton, a Kansas City artist and the founder of Atelier de Fleuriste. I paint murals and create custom artwork that’s inspired by gardens, vintage botanical prints, and old-world pattern design, with a modern, elevated finish. A lot of my work is floral, but it’s not “cute flowers on a wall.” I love making spaces feel like an experience, something you notice the second you walk in, and something that still feels beautiful years from now.
I’m especially known for my textured plaster floral walls. They’re sculptural, subtle, and super timeless, and they turn light into part of the artwork. Right now I’m building more collaborations with Kansas City businesses while also working on larger-scale residential projects and commissions. My goal is to create work that feels both luxurious and personal, like it was always meant to be there.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What relationship most shaped how you see yourself?
Honestly I have a baker’s dozen worth of relationships that have shaped me for the worse and the better. I credit all of them for who I can say I’ve become.
The relationship I always think of first is being a niece to the best aunt a girl could have, My aunt Janet, I would say, is still the single most influential person in my life though she is no longer earthside. From my earliest memories, she was always telling me I could be whatever I wanted and not to listen to anyone who said otherwise. She’s the reason I’m an artist now. After I climbed out of the deepest parts of my grief after her loss, I started my business. I wish she could see it today, I know she’d be ecstatic. She actually commissioned a series of paintings for me long before I ever had the ability and was my highest paying client in my photography studio before I retired.
My fiance’ came along when I least expected and has beautifully supported and encouraged me through every imposter syndrome moment, helped uproot every seed of doubt before it took root, and has helped workshop any logistical bottleneck I’ve faced. His way of speaking life into me has fueled so much of the growth and bravery I take into every challenge.
I also think any mother can also say before and after their children came along, they were incredibly different people. I live everyday with a significantly inspiring motivation to embody the type of living you’d hope for them. I want to live out the things I tell them most, what I was told myself, that I can become whatever I want. They are all amazing artists and musicians and I’d love nothing more than to hope I helped embolden their beliefs on that path.
The friends I have the pleasure to share life with are the most insanely powerful and beautiful women I’ve ever met. I can always tap into a sense of what they would do or say to me in any moment and channel that force into the day-to-day climb. I want to be more like them when I grow up. 🙂
I also have the immense privilege of having a, we’ll say, mentor/big brother that has guided me through everything life, love, and business for many years. We talk nearly everyday and he has walked me through the darkest and lightest days helping me to intentionally shape myself and my beliefs to align more and more with the life I’ve been dreaming up.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Can I say daily? Haha. I don’t think I know an artist that hasn’t faced down some serious doubts. It’s not just a job that you either enter data, or collaborate in a meeting toward an impersonal sales goal. The work you do comes from you, so it feels like if it takes off or not, it is inherently attached to your identity. So I’ve grappled with the appropriate amount of detachment to take into each project. What I learned was that the more I leaned into the art that really lit me up, the more positively it was received. Anytime I tried to borrow a style, or emulate another artist I admire, something always fell flat. It was too risky to put my heart out there in case I couldn’t execute the end result. Almost like if I don’t give it all, and it fails, its okay because it wasn’t truly all in. I’ve learned the only way to be the best artist I can be is to boldly chase down those inner sparks that only come from me. That reaches people because it shows in the art. So now I just reach in and grab whatever is closest to my heart and throw it on a wall, the response has been overwhelming. I hope I become an artist that another artist can look at and be encouraged to reach inside them and find what they’ve always wanted to create.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
Honestly, no. I’ve lived a lot of versions of myself trying on different identities to see what felt like home. I had a largely unstable childhood that bled into early adulthood and spent most of my life trying to connect to others and fit in. I wanted to belong so bad. So many phases, nearly unrecognizable from the last. I had best friends growing up but felt like I wasn’t anyone’s best friend. I did the same in relationships, family dynamics, workplaces, and in every vocation I pursued. My google results are like a junk drawer of personas and while it used to embarrass me to be out there as such a flip-flop person, I eventually realized that it was as testament to the journey of being able to rely on my own compass within. I think its a common phenomenon these days. So much social pressure, polarizing voices, and ever-moving targets, we all are just looking for a tribe and a place we find a real home in.
I am finally myself, though I know it’ll still shift and change a lot over the years, it will at very least be self-guided, letting the noise out there stay noise.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I would love nothing more than for everyone in my life to know I loved them with everything that I had. That they would say that I lived a life with the same delight and curiosity that I had when I was a little girl. I was such a carefree, happy-go-lucky little thing. Sang about everything, asked huge questions, and rarely took anything at face value. I spent a very big chunk of my 30’s trying to put that girl back in the driver’s seat of my life and I would walk through anything for her to stay there.
She knows way more than any adult version of me did and has such a vivacious and amazing approach to things. With a profoundly uncompromising optimism, and a firm belief that there is far more love, beauty, and good things happening in the world than what is on the news, it is my hope that my life reminds anyone I meet of that by example. I love people so much, and I only hope that the fingerprints on everyone I touched leave them better than when I found them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.karapayton.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karapayton_/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kara-payton/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karacpayton/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Karapayton
