Designer and Artist Kate Lewis is the creative gal behind the Southern California surfboard bag brand Aye Papi. Each board is hand painted, creating a unique personality for each. Kate is all about individuality and being your unique self, and so when creating her bags, she ensures that no bag is ever the same.
One of my favourite parts about her site (aside from the rad board bags) is her blog. She shares the inspirations for her hand-painted gems, giving us an inside look into her creative process. She also showcases her daily life with a twist, illustrations over her photographs to show us how she sees life. She explains it perfectly in her post by saying, “Do you ever look at a photograph and think to yourself ‘there’s just something missing’? I like to think there’s a film drawn over my eyes that allows me to walk around and see life overlaid with illustrations.”
Individuality and good vibes is what this gal is all about and I can’t wait to introduce you to her!
Where are you in the world?
Literally, I guess I’m sitting one leg folded over the other staring at my coffee mug and Sriracha wondering if the girth of my cup would fit the entire hot sauce bottle. This and other mindless musings are currently occurring in San Diego, CA.
Metaphysically however, I’m everywhere, no where, floating around in time and space, you know, that whole deal.
How do you follow your bliss?
My greatest bliss I think is in feeling new feelings. I’ve always thought I want to experience everything there is to be felt without holding back – love, hate, joy, disappointment, empathy, pride, every combination and everything in between, the full spectrum and beyond. The only way I know how to be exposed to those novel feelings is to always do new things. I never want to wonder “what if?”… I’m a “YES!” girl and try to surround myself with other walking, talking exclamation points and question marks.
When did the inspiration for Aye Papi first come about?
I was living in cramped quarters pinching pennies in New York City (I never realized until typing that out how terribly cliche the stereotype really is), doing art on whatever scrap things we found laying in the streets or in thrift stores. We had no spare wall space and the only way I knew to justify making more art was to start creating usable objects that didn’t just hang without purpose on our walls.
I had a roll of canvas at our apartment and instead of stretching it onto frames, I decided to make bags to hold our surfboards for the subway rides to the beach.
What did you need to do in order to get your board bags into stores?
I talk about the project to anyone and everyone. It’s a huge part of my life, so I’m happy to rap about it, ask advice, receive input, just get people stoked on being apart of something creative.
It was as easy as talking to people at the first store which started stocking the bags, Matuse Black Spot, and they made the intro to the next shop owner, who introduced me to the next shop owner, and so on.
By nature, there’s this awesomely altruistic concept that I think most people just want to help other people. Truly believing the anti-Murphy’s law that “if anything good can happen, it will”…people dig that, and want to keep you glowing, vibrating at a higher frequency.
If fear ever shows up in your life, how do you move passed it?
My uncle taught me his method for dealing with worry, indecision, fear, the like, and it really impressed upon me. It was a three part process of logic:
1. Think “what’s the worst that can happen?”
2. Contemplate “can I live with that?”
3. Do it
Why do you love what you do?
I love that by pursuing this line of work, I see it exciting other people on their personal pursuits, like they think “if she can do it, I can do it!” People share with me a lot what their greatest creative dreams are, and I like building them up, helping them brainstorm how to make it happen, getting rid of worry…I guess just activating them. I hope they don’t just fall asleep and forget about the conversation haha.
What’s one of the biggest risks you’ve taken, and how did it feel to go for it?
Leaving my hometown was probably the biggest risk I’ve ever taken. I know I know it sounds so tame, but that was my comfort zone, all I had known for decades, and where I knew I would have a stable life and plan.
My best friend gave me wonderful advice…she said, “If you stay here, you know what’ll happen, but if you go, the sky’s the limit.” That’s where it all began.
I couldn’t have comprehended back then what was in store, but I feel like I’ve lived so many incredible lives since then, and this one, it’s just another to experience.
Tell us a time when something totally synchronistic happened?
I feel like the smallest synchronicites are the first to come to mind, and they happen everywhere, all the time, when you start to listen. Like when you’re having a conversation while music is playing and you happen to say the same word at the same time as the singer, and then you pause to think “wait, there’s gotta be some significance to the word ‘wave’ right now…grab your board!” or whatever the word may be.
What advice could you give to someone who knows what they love to do, but haven’t gone for it?
An emphatic “Ya NEVA know!”
Follow Kate’s journey on Instagram x
