Hello!

My name is Katy Morikawa. I am a web developer, graphic designer, artist, writer, astrologer, lifelong philosopher mystic, aspiring naturalist, native planter, podcaster, semi-skilled woodworker, eco-activist, cat mom, life partner to a local Floyd man, graduate of Blacksburg High School, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and the California Institute of Integral Studies.

I live on a gravel road in a small magical cabin I built with my partner, Michael. We are surrounded by trees through which we can just see distant mountains, the singing of katydids in the warm seasons, and family nearby.

Our cain in the woods

Current

I have returned to astrology and psychology after my two year foray into native plants and Appalachian ecology. If this seems like an abrupt about-face, it does to me as well. On the other hand, these are the topics that have held my interest for most of my life. I have completed work on a Venus Cycle Calendar and Planner for 2023-2025 now for sale on Amazon.

Blog and Podcast

I have been an inconsistent blogger and podcaster, though I keep returning to it, enjoying the way that writing for a public audience inspires the discipline needed to develop my thoughts. I feel compelled too I think by age (I am 55 this year) to give back and share my wisdom, having come to understand at last so many things that were mysterious to me when I was younger. This same urge to give back has also inspired me for the first time in my life to volunteer and activist work, to the point I ran my bank account dry last year working for free! How extraordinary to feel so profoundly grateful, filled with poignant urgency to give back, even while filled with disappointments and regrets! Perhaps some of this urgency comes from not having raised children, by which many people give and give to future generations. You may browse what episodes I have recorded anywhere you get your podcasts.

Spotify
Apple Podcasts
Anchor

Volunteer Work

Floyd Native Plants

Midway through the frenzied two years I spent teaching myself about Appalachian ecology, learning to identify native plants, beginning to be able to recognize the difference between relatively intact ecosystems and degraded ones, seeing invasive species everywhere, and having fallen deeply in love with bees and wasps (I’ve written about some of this here), I created a list of high value nectar flowers specifically native to Floyd County, VA. I didn’t yet know what types of ecological restoration were most needed in Floyd, but I could see how few flowers there were in the wild. A great deal of research went into the list–this information was completely absent even among our local native plant nurseries. But with a panic (why a panic?), I realized my list would be useless to local gardeners if these flowers weren’t available for purchase anywhere locally. After asking several local nurseries if they planned to or would consider carrying many of these and getting negative answers, I went to Sustain Floyd and Partnership for Floyd and asked them to fund a native seed-starting project.

Wildflower Wednesdays

In early 2023, I created the floydnativeplants.org website and Facebook page, bought seeds (from Prairie Moon Nursery) for as many of the species on my list as I could find, and began to plan. Over the course of the spring and summer of 2023, a small group of growers and I, including Mother’s Child Farm, Spikenard Honeybee Farm, Barbara Pleasant, and a few friends of mine, raised more than 5,000 native wildflowers from seed and gave them away in a series of events at the Floyd Farmers Market we called Wildflower Wednesdays. It was a great success and well received by the community.

At the end of the summer, thoroughly exhausted and dead broke (I had neglected my paying clients and ran the project for free), I announced we would not be doing the project again next year. My hope was that we had lit a fire under the local nurseries, raised local awareness about native plants, and helped to get plants into the ground where they might begin to grow and support local wildlife, and produce seeds to restore the depleted local native seedbank.

Community Advisor (New in 2022)

Sustain Floyd is a local non-profit organization working to build ecological and economic resiliency in the Floyd County area of Southwest Virginia since 2008. I have known many of its founding members for decades, and my father is one of these. But only in 2021 did I get involved as the organization sought to engage a younger generation. The issue of recycling, sadly behind the times here in Floyd, was the first initiative I took up. This led to my part in Sustain Floyd’s presentation to the Industrial Design class at Virginia Tech: Household Recycling Problems for Industrial Designers. On January 19, 2022, I was formally nominated and accepted as a Community Advisor. It’s a wonderful honor and I look forward to years of engagement on sustainability issues in Floyd.

Work History

Freelance Web Developer, Graphic Designer, Virtual Assistant (2015-present)

I’ve been a WordPress developer since 2015, a graphic designer since 1998, and an artist since I could hold a pen. These days, most of my clients are non-profits. It’s a client roster that suits me well. I work from home, something I enjoy a lot. I am never lonely, and only wish I had a better retirement plan!

Co-Founder, Sales, Marketing, She-of-Many-Hats (2015-present)

The Workshop, Floyd VA. The business we launched in 2015 when I left Crenshaw Lighting is pretty quiet these days, but it accentuates our lifestyle, and we continue to draw inspiration from our mission: “Live simply. Leave a light footprint on the earth. Cherish beauty. Make by hand what we can. Protect nature, and especially protect the trees. Love our neighbors. Laugh a lot. Keep learning. Live long and prosper.”

Inside Sales, Project Manager, Marketing, Website (2010-2015)

Crenshaw Lighting, Floyd, VA. They have since gutted the beautiful website I helped to create and replaced it with a Shopify website! There’s no accounting for taste.

EDUCATION

M.A. Counseling Psychology, Somatics (2009)

California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA

B.A. Religion (1993)

University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI

H.S. Graduate (1986)

Blacksburg High School, Blacksburg, VA

PHILOSOPHICAL INFLUENCES