I became a cartoonist quite accidentally. Prior to this incarnation, I studied politics at the Australian National University, travelled extensively and worked in overseas aid and human rights. Finding myself made redundant in late 1996, I despaired for a bit (as you do) then, with a bit of hassling from friends who’d been receiving my handmade birthday cards for years, embraced the personal reinvention zeitgeist and took up the pen on a full-time basis in 1997.

Since then, my work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Bulletin, The Chaser, Eureka Street and New Matilda. My political cartoons have popped up regularly in the National Museum’s annual Behind the Lines exhibition and Scribe’s yearly Best Australian Political Cartoons anthologies (including the cover of the 2009 edition). I’ve also illustrated loads of books for just about every publisher, designed cards for the Ink Group and t-shirts for Mambo.

Cartoonists are lucky folk indeed- able to take all their experiences, beliefs, bile and passion, wrap them up in a metaphor and get inky fingers in the process. It’s bucketloads of fun.

But don’t believe the hype (after all, I wrote it). Check it out for yourself in the cartoon galleries and, if you’re so inclined, drop me a line – fkatauskas@iprimus.com.au or join me in the Twittersphere @fionakatauskas