Kaitlin Hawayek: An Artist On and Off the Ice

Kaitlin Hawayek hasn't spent longer than five consecutive days in her hometown since she was 13 years old. She left Buffalo, New York, to skate and train in Michigan. Nine years later she moved to Montreal to continue her skating career.
 
In March, the United States border closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hawayek returned to Buffalo to quarantine with her family.  
 
The skating season was cut short. The World Championships, which she was scheduled to compete in, were canceled. Skating has since been limited to off-ice classes and over-the-phone communication and planning.
 
Hawayek fills her free time with other forms of creative expression, like art and music. "They're very emotion driven and artistically driven," she said. "They make you feel something when you do them and I think that's the same thing with skating which is why I love it so much."
 
For much of her life, Hawayek referred to her relationship with art as an "inconsistent hobby." A year and a half ago that changed.
 
Hawayek's choreographer, Samuel Chouinard, introduced her to acrylic pouring. She was immediately drawn to the style and began experimenting on canvas'. She grew her collection and filled the walls of her new apartment with her own abstract designs.
 
"Figure skating is such an artistic, creative sport. It kind of facilitated that passion for art outside of my sport," said Hawayek.
 
In quarantine at her parents' home in Buffalo, Hawayek turned her passion into a business.
 
With the support and encouragement of family and friends, Hawayek opened an Etsy shop to sell her pieces. She accumulated over a month's worth of work to prepare for her launch. Within 10 hours she sold all 11 listings.
 
"It was overwhelming for me in a great way," she said.
 
Hawayek began selling her paintings because she wanted to find a way to give back to the community.
 
"It felt like my duty and my responsibility to do good for other people," said Hawayek.
 
For a month and a half, she donated thirty percent of the profits she made to Open Ice, a fundraiser that accumulated donations for the United Nations Foundation's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. It amounted to a $300 contribution.
 
Since launching her site, she's made more than 20 sales – some sets and others a single canvas. Customers have sent her pictures, allowing her to see her artwork hanging on the walls in their homes. 
 
Art is not the only thing that keeps Hawayek busy while she's at home in Buffalo. In fact, it's not her favorite pastime either. Behind skating, her second greatest passion is music. Her DJ mixer was one of the first items she packed to take home.
 
Hawayek became interested in mixing and editing music 3 years ago. She noticed that when choreographing a program, there are frequent and minute adjustments that need to be made to the music: "taking out four seconds here or adding a phrase of music there," she said.
 
She invested in a DJ mixer, did research and began to learn the process. Now, she is able to make the changes herself, on the spot. Later, they are made into professional edits.
 
Her efficiency at practice increased and she fell in love with it.
 
"I realized that I had a fairly natural knack for understanding how music mixes together," Hawayek said.
 
For fun, she creates 45-minute mixes and posts them to SoundCloud. She titles her mixes based on where or what she is doing upon creation.
 
"Two things that I love are mixing music and really bad puns," she said. Her latest mix is called "Quarantunes".
 
Hawayek's aspirations are bigger. She planned to begin DJing live this spring. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, gathering an audience was not permitted.
 
Her skating partner, Jean-Luc Baker, suggested an alternative.
 
Hawayek held her first live set in late May. Thirty friends joined a Saturday night Zoom call for an hour-long performance. She called it a success.
 
In the absence of skating, art and music provide Hawayek with the emotional and artistic expression she craves, but she is eager to get back on the ice.
 
"I would never remove anything of my training to be able to fit in these other passion projects," she said.
 
Instead, she hopes to find a way to organize herself more efficiently so she can do it all. Additionally she's working towards a degree in psychology from Penn State World Campus.
 
That's just who she is: extremely goal driven.
 
"I find purpose by working towards something which is why I think I latched on to these passion projects," Hawayek said. "The biggest thing to me is to feel like I'm always growing and learning."