Creative-Class: Billie Anderson's Functional Art

8.24.2010

Billie Anderson's Functional Art

Take a great artist with years of practice who's loaded with creativity, give her a computer to play with, a pile of used bags, and what have you got? Pillows & Laptop Messenger bags, Military Map Bags & Swiss Army Fly Fishing Bags that she re-news using her own printed fabrics customized with her gorgeous original artwork & photomontage designs.

I just had to share these ingeniously unique, signature pieces of functional art by Billie Anderson of FloorArt Etc. I love this stuff! ~ angee

Billie's Functional Art Pieces from Etsy

MEET Billie Anderson from Bigfork Montana...

I've been an artist, photographer, basket weaver, seamstress, candlemaker, and crafter for over 40 years. For the last 4 years I've focused on painting large painted canvas rugs, wall tapestries, and furniture.

My first Grandson was born in February 2010 and I moved temporarily for about a year to Colorado to be his Nanny. A job I just LOVE! While here, as there is not enough room to do large paintings, I have been honing my photographic skills as well as my sewing. I'm loving using my Photoshop to create photomontages and also having my art and photographic designs custom printed onto fabric where the possibilities are endless.

I have design ideas all around me and I tend to have a multitude of ideas going at the same time. I feel very fortunate to be a designer and artist along with being a Nanny to my adorable Grandson Nikolas. I love every minute of every day.

You can purchase Billie's pieces from her Etsy shop here:
http://floorartetc.etsy.com

Check out Billie's Portfolio Slideshow to see her past artworks
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2Abt3LNs1bMWK4

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Thanks for sharing your gorgeous bags with us Billie. They're truly inspirational and awesomely unique. Here's to many sales and much success!

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creative humor

"Very few people possess true artistic ability. It is therefore unseemly to irritate the situation by making an effort. If you have a burning, restless urge to write or paint, simply eat something sweet and the feeling will pass."~Fran Lebowitz
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Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue. Those who aren't artists must color things the way they really are or people might think they're stupid. ~Jules Feiffer
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An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to have but that he - for some reason - thinks it would be a good idea to give them. ~Andy Warhol
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God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things. ~Pablo Picasso

by Meredith Dada

So I have joined the SAHM club (stay at home mom) which caused the people around me to say, "Oh how nice, will you be working more on your little Etsy thingie?" Leaving the patronizing tone aside for now, I thought, "yes, I probably will have more time to work on my little Etsy thingie." So I went out to my studio, put on my business hat, and took a look around.

~Oy Vey! Not good!~I have a terrible business model, plan, structure. Whatever you want to call it, it is not good!
1. Materials: I obsessively buy beads and materials like a crazy hoarder. I have bits and pieces squirreled away in jars and tins with no idea how much they cost.
2. Hours Spent: My work takes forever! I never keep track of hours spent on a piece. I know my Butterfly Wall Hanging took me 3 months, but I have no idea how many hours it took me. So how do I price things to make up for my time spent?
3. Inventory: Because it takes me forever to make each piece, how on earth am I going to keep a steady flow of inventory. I see many people suggesting re-listing new items constantly will help with sales...not gonna happen unless I work 24-7!

OK... Business Hat. Now what do I do?
*Start selling off my excess beads, start a supply shop, catalog and keep track of all supply spending, no more fun shopping sprees?

NO MORE HOARDING?

*Keep a log of my hours spent on each piece, like a time clock... like a JOB?
*Find more time in my packed day... wake up early, go to bed late, stop eating and showering?

Now I am getting stressed. How the heck am I going to make this work? With so many successful Etsy stories...how do they do it?

Again... Oy Vey!

Then I remembered a quote from the chick-flick of all chick-flicks: Hope Floats "You find something you love, and you twist it, and torture it, and try to make money at it. And, at the end, you can't find a trace of what you started out loving."

Sweet relief! What on Earth am I doing to myself?? Reality check... this may have to remain just a hobby for me, it may never be a booming business, and that is OK. So my friends and family will continue to refer to it as my "little Etsy thingie." So what! Comparing myself to the many successful businesses out there is totally unrealistic. The nature of my product will not make me a rich woman anytime soon. This is such a diverse community, what works for one person may not work for me. I can see why there are so many success stories, but not everything is possible, even with hard work.

To those of you who can make money doing what you love, my hat is off to you! To those of you who are stressed out, worrying about quitting, and disappointed by slow sales...

"Don't forget what you started out loving."
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Meredith is an artist and shop owner at Etsy.com. She really does make very unique and beautiful things. Plan your next shopping spree in her store. GO!

art quotes

"Above all keep your colours fresh!"~Manet

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."~Picasso

"Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things."~Degas

"As practice makes perfect, I cannot but make progress; each drawing one makes, each study one paints, is a step forward."~Van Gogh

"I shut my eyes in order to see."~Gauguin

"The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed. So, that a hundred years later when a stranger looks at it, it moves again... since it is life."~Faulkner

"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance."~Aristotle