You’ve found the secret cat: Sebastian Westberg hides big emotions in illustrations

At just 20 years old, Green Bay artist Sebastian Westberg has been making art most of his life, and selling that work for nearly half of it.

“I think most kids draw, and the people who wind up being artists just never stop,” he said. “I was drawing as soon as I could hold a crayon. But the thing that kind of kept me interested in it was comic books. When I was a little kid, my parents both were into comics, so they would read me different comic books as bedtime stories… That’s definitely what got me into comic book making. And then when I was in elementary school, I found out that a lot of local art shows in Wisconsin do these things called young artist events, where they would give kid artists either free or reduced-price booths. So I started selling at art markets and art shows when I was like 11.”

While Westberg is still a consistent presence at area art markets, fairs and festivals, the changing social media landscape is responsible for the creation of one of his most popular recurring characters.

“For the longest time, Instagram was a platform mostly focused on pictures, which was great for artists…” he said. “But Instagram kind of switched to prioritizing short-form video content, so I started trying to think of what I could do to work within that algorithm and get my art out there more. I created this little video of a jumping black cat and it said, ‘What are the odds that within the vast internet you found this secret cat?’ And people really responded to that, so I was like, ‘Okay, I’ve got something here. I want to keep using this character.’”

From there, Westberg continued to draw the Secret Cat in various scenarios for people to find on Instagram.

“I gave him overalls to kind of make him more distinct and I would make these little videos of just a kind of vibey scene — the secret cat hanging out or sleeping or something — and I would overlay some cozy music and they would usually say something along the lines of, ‘Everything’s going to be okay, you found the secret cat,’” he said. “Those really blew up for a while online and a lot of people would comment saying whatever bad thing going on in their life had been stressing them out, but then they found that video and it calmed them down and made them feel like everything was going to be okay. And I really liked the fact that I had created a character that was able to give people some level of comfort, so I ran with that and started doing a lot of illustrations with that character.”

Fans of the Secret Cat have the option to support Westberg on Patreon, where they can subscribe to receive a new Secret Cat print every month — not only supporting Westberg financially but also encouraging him to keep up with illustration while he works on various comic projects.

“I have a mail club and a digital rewards club,” he said. “In the mail club, people pay $15 a month and that’s basically a way for me to get out a new print, a sticker and a button featuring the secret cat to people who like that work every month. Honestly, I kind of started it as a way to keep myself on track and making work. I really like making comics, but then sometimes I get really focused on making my comics and I let the regular illustration stuff kind of slip.

But I was like, ‘If I do a monthly service where I’m sending people art, I have to keep myself responsible for making at least one illustration a month for that.’ It’s really great because I do a lot of art shows in the summer, but throughout the rest of the year there’s not as much stuff to do in terms of art markets so it’s a way for me to still get work out to people regularly.”

Westberg is a part of a collaborative comic book project, The Sandbox Comic Anthology, which recently concluded a Kickstarter campaign to fund the 200+ page, 14-artist publication, and is also working on his own full-length comic book.

“I really enjoy storytelling and I think there are times that art can just kind of speak to you and make you feel something,” he said. “I really like the secret cat stuff because I think it does give people a feeling of comfort, but I want to make people feel a ton of different things with different works. I want to make comics to make people really sad or really happy or make art to make people feel safe and art that makes people feel uncomfortable. When you’re interacting with art, reading a book or watching a movie… Whatever form of media you’re consuming can really make you feel some strong emotions and that really inspires me to want to create stuff like that.”

Find more of Westberg’s work — and the Secret Cat — on Instagram @skull_ink_art.