Meet Hillary Butler | Professional Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hillary Butler and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hillary, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
When I first started my art business, I was so freaked out that I wouldn’t make it, that I worked all the time. I hustled my buns off working too many hours and I wasn’t very present with my husband. I really regret that now. When I gave birth to my first son, all of my priorities shifted overnight. I had this little person that I was so in love with who needed me and I didn’t want to miss out on his growing up. I had to limit my hours to work around part time childcare and learned how to work a lot smarter. I quit working nights for the most part and take off big chunks of time around their school holidays and have done better in my business that I did when I was working more hours. I love talking to people about this beautiful schedule that I have created for myself. I’m so much more content with firm boundaries around work!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I work in the semi-abstract world. In some of my pieces I simply explore color & composition and others I am exploring subject matter- always infusing both genres with lots of bold color palettes! I often hear that my color combinations are unique and really draw collectors into the art. I’m most proud that 11 years into this career I am still going strong with collectors all over the US and a few across the pond!

I knew from a young age that I wanted to be in the creative field- I always self identified as an artist. I did all the art I could do in highschool and took lots of lessons. I started out in college as an art major, got burned out, and ended up with English and Art History degree! I taught English for a semester out of college and realized it was not for me. I got a job as an admin assistant at a tech firm (zzzzzzzz) and went back to school to get an associates in graphic design. I thought I wanted to do stationery and needed computer skills to turn art into cards. I tried to find work as a designer, but the little 2008 recession thing kind of put a kink in my plans. No one was hiring! The little quick layover as an admin turned into 5 years at the tech firm and I did marketing, design, admin, & conference coordinating for them. Basically I wore a lot of hats and kept at this very safe but boring job until I broke down and quit to pursue my art career with absolutely no idea how to do it! I was terrified, but excited to get my real career started. I just hit the ground running form day 1. I started a blog and met with every artist who would talk to me and asked them how they made it. I started a website and started promoting on social media. It took a long time to really build traction. I would say about 2 years before I felt like I was getting steady work. I also hit a wall at about 2 years where I didn’t like what I was painting and I had a huge meltdown because work was slow and I thought I was done. I went to therapy and did a lot of soul searching and realized that I was still playing it safe. I was painting crap b/c I thought it was what people wanted. It wasn’t what people wanted, clearly, because they weren’t buying it! I realized then that I had nothing to lose and started painting what I really wanted to paint and to my surprise, people really responded to it! At that point, I pitched a few blogs, got picked up by a few of them, and showed up at a local festival and I started to see steady growth. Instagram arose about this time and that was a fabulous way for a lot of us artists to grow our audiences. I kept seeing my business and my reach grow and I’ve continued to grow in my practice and have had some really fun opportunities come my way!

I’m honored to have work on ABC’s hit show, Nashville, and have had the opportunity to show at Agora Gallery in New York. Several hit blogs have featured some HB work. Among these are Better Homes and Gardens, Domino, & Design Love Fest.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am a die hard Memphian! I love finding new places and taking friends to my favorite haunts! I broke it down by parts of town for convenience!

Downtown:

Stay at Arrive. Pizza in their lobby. Head to the Shuffleboard bar down below.
Walk the bridge
Browse the shops and art galleries on South Main.
Drinks at Central Station- take some team to listen to some Memphis soul in their listening room, dinner at Bishop, dessert at Cheesecake Corner
Take a ride on the Trolley
See the Ducks and have high tea at the Peabody. Come back later for a drink in the lobby.
Visit Loflin Yard and play some corn hole on the lawn after dinner.

Midtown:
Lunch at Finos
Tea at 17 Berkshire
Tiger and Peacock at the top of the Memphian Hotel. I like hanging out in their lobby!
Railgarten- family friendly. There’s great food and drinks, volleyball, pool, a playground. Most of it is outside, so it’s perfect for beautiful weather nights!
Our Levitt Shell puts on tons of free concerts all year long. It’s one of our favorite places to go take a picnic, run into friends, and listen to good music!

East Memphis:
Acre- a favorite place for lunch or dinner – my favorite cocktail artist works here!
Dixon- gallery and gardens. There’s currently a women’s sport attire throughout the ages exhibit happening right now- I can’t wait to go see it!
Botanic Gardens: stunning gardens for acres!
City Silo: my favorite eatery of all times. It’s casual healthy food. I eat here way too often!

Memphis is rich with history & to really understand our culture, these are two must visit museums: the Stax Museum
& the Civil Rights Museum. So many famous MoTown artists recorded at Stax. Isaac Hayes gold plated Cadillac is on full display there. So dang cool! The Civil Rights Museum so beautifully honors the work and life of Dr. King & all his colleagues during the 60’s. It is a must visit!

Elmwood Cemetery is one of the coolest monument parks around. You can do an after dark ghost tour and hear all the wild tales of the lives of those buried there.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to give a huge shout out to Michelle Armas. She is an abstract artist that I had admired for years before I started my painting career. A few months after I started my art business, I reached out to her when I was visiting her city and she so kindly invited me to her studio and talked with me on how to succeed as an artist. I will forever be so grateful for her advice and her generosity to a nobody like me. Her generous spirit has encouraged me to do the same for other artists!

Website: www.hillarybutler.com

Instagram: @hillarybutlerfineart

Facebook: Hillary Butler Fine Art

Image Credits
Chip Panky