Check Out Jill Battaglia’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jill Battaglia.

Hi Jill, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve always loved drawing and painting and especially photography. I was an art major in college but I never pursued a career with it until my three kids were almost grown. In the 90’s I enjoyed developing my black-and-white photos in my makeshift home darkroom and then hand-coloring them. I later began exploring digital photography and learning Photoshop.

In 2005, at the suggestion of a friend, I applied and was accepted into Arcangel Images. It’s a photo library that licenses photos mainly to book publishers for their cover art. A few years later I also joined Trevillion Images which does the same thing. In the beginning, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing and didn’t have many sales. Soon I was very blessed to find a group of friends, some online and some local to me, that also worked for Arcangel.

We challenged and encouraged each other. We had a lot of fun coming up with new creative ideas, searching for costumes and props, and finding models (often family and friends) that we could dress up and pose for the photos. I was also blessed to have the opportunity to travel around the US and even to England in search of photos I could use in my work. I worked very hard at this for the next ten years and enjoyed new sales every month.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Without a doubt, the biggest obstacle/challenge for me occurred in early 2015. At that point life was great! The kids were grown up and doing well, and my wonderful husband and I had the opportunity to do some traveling around the country in our RV. I was really enjoying my career and having some success. Then in the early part of that year, I was preparing for a photography trip to Scotland that I had already booked and paid for when I came down with bronchitis that I couldn’t seem to shake.

My doctor gave me a fluoroquinolone “antibiotic” that was supposed to help me get better. I didn’t know it at the time, but fluoroquinolones are failed chemotherapy drugs that were rebranded as antibiotics. I had no idea how damaging they can be to too many people (me!). In a matter of days, I could hardly walk. It had severely damaged my mitochondria and my nervous system and more. I could not function and was basically bedridden for months desperately trying to figure out what happened to me and how to recover from it.

Fortunately, I have been so blessed with a strong faith in Jesus Christ and I am also blessed to have an amazing, loving husband and family. It has taken me the better part of the past 7 or so years to get up to about 80% of where I had been. I will continue to keep working on building my health, strength, and stamina but if this is as good as it gets I am extremely thankful to God. Even though I don’t have the energy to maintain the work schedule I once did, that’s OK.

One of the blessings that have come out of all this is that I’ve been able to get back to my artistic beginnings. I’m drawing and painting again. I’m also learning soft pastels, oil pastels, and collages. I’m loving it! I still have my photos with Arcangel and Trevillion so I do continue to have some sales for book covers there. I also sell my photos and other artwork for prints and cards etc through fineartamerica.com. God has blessed me abundantly and life is good!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Up until recently, photography has been my main passion. Over the years I’ve won many awards and have been published in photography magazines here in the US and also China and Portugal. Most of my success has been in the book cover market.

To date, I’ve had my photos on over 1200 book covers in over 35 countries around the world. I’ve also had my photos used in advertisements, magazine articles, blogs, and music CDs. I’m now focusing on new art creations and learning all I can. I hope to find success in the future with these new art mediums. In the meantime, I’m having loads of fun!

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
What I like best about the Phoenix area are the rugged mountains in the area. I particularly love the Superstition Mountains which I have views of out my windows. Of course the weather much of the year is fantastic. The super hot months are what I like least, but then it’s only a 3 1/2 hour drive up to our summer place in the White Mountains where is it much cooler. That’s pretty great.

Contact Info:

• Website: fineartamerica.com/profiles/jill-battaglia
• Instagram: @jmbatt