Meet Holly Anderson of Holly Anderson Fine Art | Anderson Modern

Today we’d like to introduce you to Holly Anderson.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Holly. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I could not work because I was on narcotics and I kept making too many mistakes. For the last 17 years, I’ve battled a very debilitating muscular skeletal disease and just had back to back surgeries including a spinal fusion. I did not know what to do, I’d always had a desk job and I could no longer sit at a desk anymore.

Everyone told me I would have to be on narcotics the rest of my life but one day I decided to stop taking them because they don’t fix anything, they changed my personality so much I didn’t even know who I was anymore so I quit cold turkey and wasn’t sure how to deal with the pain.

I had inherited a bunch of art supplies from my grandmother who was a professional artist and art teacher. Plus, I didn’t have any capital to start a business and wasn’t reliable or stable enough to get a “real job” so I started experimenting with paint.

Painting helped me get through the pain and was a great distraction. I had no idea what art rules were, what I was doing, what complimentary colors were but I painted and I loved what I had created. In May of 2011, I signed up for facebook and started following big name artists in the valley. Hugo Medina was putting together a benefit show to save the Icehouse. I nervously sent him photos of my paintings. They were accepted. I have no art education, I had never hung an art show before but I volunteered to hang the show and was on the news, it was exciting it made me feel like I could do this… the opening night of the show my piece sold immediately so I decided to keep on creating.

My first year as an “artist” I did 33 shows and was on every social platform available. I have extreme social anxiety but I decided to participate in several street fairs and festivals, etc also. After about two years of networking and pounding the pavement, I started getting contacted by hotels in the UK, collectors in Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, universities and design companies. Over the last seven years, I’ve collaborated with several renowned valley artists. I have also been fortunate to partner and create special installations or works with designers, hoteliers, restaurants, large corporations and have been able to create custom art for ESPN, FOX, CBRE & Paramount Pictures.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The struggle is real! being a full-time artist means you also have to be a salesperson and have knowledge in marketing. Even though many pieces are emotionally driven, you have to accept the fact that your art is a product. I spend more hours doing marketing/photographing/editing/writing/promoting more than I am able to create sometimes. A lot has changed over the years and it keeps changing. I keep having to adapt to this or that, join this or that,

Please tell us about Holly Anderson Fine Art | Anderson Modern.
I specialize in large-scale paintings, Art Installation, Custom Artwork, Decorative Painting & Texture Painting. You will find composition, abstraction, organic movement, emotion, fluency, texture and light in each of my paintings. my paintings and ideas are inspired by Internal Arts, human emotion, nature and the universe.

What sets me apart from others….. not sure. I don’t put my name on the front of my paintings, instead, I trash a beautiful black floor length dress every time I create. Each dress has a story, much more interesting than my signature. I also use nontraditional tools and materials, not brushes like most people would assume.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Consider hiring an agent so I could have more hours in the studio.

Contact Info:

• Address: 701 N. 15th Avenue Phx AZ 85007
• Website: https://www.houzz.com/pro/holly-anderson/__public
• Phone: 6025657954
• Email: andersonmodernart@gmail.com
• Instagram: hollyandersonartphx@gmail.com; @andersonmodern
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Holly-Anderson-Fine-Art-174600762587659/notifications/

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