First Edition · Pre-launch
When the world went quiet, hair got loud.
Twenty-four hand-drawn portraits, monologues, and affirmations. A square coffee-table book by Frances Catania, co-authored with her son, Nicholas.
Inside the book
Four portraits, four affirmations. A taste of the ritual the book is built around — slow language, single ideas, fully felt. Click any card to open the public sample.
Chapter 1 · Sip & Think
On purpose is when you stop racing your own thoughts just to prove you deserve the floor. You don’t have to fill the silence to be taken seriously; you have to mean what you say when you speak. When you slow down, your voice gets firm—clear and direct, not timid—and people don’t get to pretend they “didn’t hear you.” They can act surprised. They can stay quiet. But they heard you.
Read this page →01
Chapter 1 · Storm-Cut Calm
No nonsense is when you stop explaining yourself. You don’t have to keep adding words to make your point acceptable. You said what you meant. You don’t need to go around and around just to be understood.
Read this page →02
Chapter 2 · Cherry-Quiet Reset
Protect my peace is when you walk in calm and refuse to let other people’s noise recruit you. Sometimes the room is loud over nothing—voices up, points flying, tension looking for a place to land. You don’t have to volunteer.
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Chapter 2 · Greenband Grace
Chosen, not chased is what you learn when you’re done confusing anxiety with chemistry. If you have to audition, over-explain, or work overtime for basic respect, you’re not being chosen—you’re being tolerated. Real interest doesn’t require you to perform. You shouldn’t have to feel nervous to feel wanted.
Read this page →04
Look Inside
The opening ritual. Cover, half-title, epigraph spread, letter from the artist, one full portrait, and a glimpse of the affirmations — in the same premium reader you'll use after the book ships.
Open the Look InsideThe full reader unlocks for waitlist members.
6-page sample
Cover · Half-title · Epigraph · Letter · Portrait · Affirmations
Read the sample →The Story
During the lockdown, Frances Catania — a junior-high art teacher of 35 years — began drawing nightly portraits on 4 × 4 paper. The salons were closed. Hair was the diary. After 200 portraits, she had a body of work.
Her son Nicholas joined to help shape the book around her drawings: a structured arc (Order → Refill), a monologue and an affirmation for every face, and a square trim that lets the art breathe.
Volume 1 is the first 24 — the proof a coffee-table book can be something you don't just read, you use.
What's inside
Two chapters. Twelve faces in each. A monologue, a drink, and an affirmation paired with every portrait. A front matter that reads like a quiet morning. A back matter that closes like a refill.
01
Half-title. Title. Dedication. Epigraph. A letter from the artist. The opening cup.
02
Chapter 1
Twelve faces. Twelve voices. Twelve ways of saying I'm here now.
03
Chapter 2
Twelve more faces. Same café, new energy. The reset, the return, the second cup.
04
Closing reflection. Volume 2 teaser. Colophon. Founders list — the names of those who showed up first.
The two chapters
Twelve faces in each chapter. Same café, second cup. The two posters that hang together at every Outpost — and the two halves of the book.
About the artist
Thirty-five years teaching junior-high art in the Hudson Valley. The pen behind every portrait, every line of color, every page.
Born in Newburgh, New York, and trained at the State University of New York, Frances spent three decades inside classrooms teaching middle-schoolers to see clearly, work patiently, and make something of the day in front of them. Then 2020 happened. The salons closed, the world went quiet, and the only stylist left was her. She started drawing nightly on 4 × 4 paper — one face, one cup, one mood at a time. After two hundred portraits she had a body of work and a category nobody else was making.
Café Girls — Volume 1 is the first twenty-four. They are not commissions, not flattery, not pretty pictures. They are the small rebellious record of a teacher who decided that ordinary days are worth drawing in color.
Her teaching credentials, the COVID story, and the studio process are documented in the press kit. See press kit →
A mother & son
Frances drew. Her son Nicholas helped her shape the manuscript, the imprint, and the path to the table by the window. The book is theirs together — her art, her words, and a publishing plan built by family.
Press & partnerships: press kit · partner program.
Save your seat
Join the waitlist for first access to the Founders Edition, the full reader, and the Volume 2 invitation when she ships.
For cafés & salons
A small set of cafés, salons, and boutiques will host curated wall sets and a copy of the book on the table by the window. Outposts are exclusive within a radius for six months and get the next volume early.
See partner program
