Mara Bateman etsy artist/shopkeeper interview #7

An etsy artist/shopkeeper interview with the an etsy newcomer Mara Bateman, shopkeeper of Tangible Thing. I worked with Mara shortly and found out when she was moving that she was also getting ready to open an etsy shop. Wanting to support this I said "When you're set-up if you want I will post an interview on my blog...I don't have a lot of readers but they are a super bunch"....this is what I love about blogging all the support that comes through. So Mara, good for you on putting it out there, sharing your creativity...good luck with this new adventure!
- kt

kt: I always ask the people I am interviewing to please send some photos of themselves so I can choose one for the interview. Mara sent these two and they were both so different that I thought I needed to post both. I think we all do have more than one side to us and I loved how brightly she was shining in both of these. 

kt: Mara, please introduce yourself to my readers.

Mara: My name is Mara Bateman and currently live in Corvallis, OR. I work at a locally owned restaurant called Nearly Normal’s Gonzo Cuisine and am studying for my Yoga Teaching Certification. I have spent most of my life focusing my creative energy towards performance art—specifically dance—and only recently have really begun to channel that energy toward visual art and design more strongly. I am definitely still in a learning and experimenting phrase…and probably will be for the rest of my life ☺. A general urge to create has always been part of who I am…whether its choreography for the stage, a drawing, a poem, a new dress, or a piece of jewelry, its something that makes me feel more myself.

kt: Mara what made you decide to open up an etsy store?

Mara: I opened an Esty shop for a couple of reasons…probably the number one reason was that I was briefly unemployed and suddenly had the time and energy to actually get it set up. I also moved into a place with enough space to accommodate a studio area…something that is actually pretty important for me to get anything done. My unemployment also happened to coincide with Christmas, which is another reason my Etsy shop became a reality. Every Christmas I primarily make gifts for people rather than buy them, and every year I think about how much I love making all that stuff and how I wish I had a reason to be making things all year round as much as I do as Christmas time…the perfect excuse for crafting constantly: an Etsy shop!

kt: What types of things (people, music, etc..) inspire you?
 Mara: Right now I am finding the bare, wintery landscape very inspiring —naked, black trees and dead grass and Vs of geese, or tiny birds that flicker around the feeder in the yard. I also get a lot of inspiration from the fantastical and magical or mythological. Images from more luminous realities or characters and symbols that we all recognize from the common human fairy tale are intriguing to me.

I am always inspired by people I know that are making it happen creatively—dancers, painters, seamstresses and musicians. I am in awe of people who seem to have both business savvy and a strong artistic voice.

kt: How would you describe your style (vibe) 

Mara: I would describe my style and whimsical and funky. I enjoy unexpected jewelry—making “wearable” things that we normally don’t associate with jewelry. When I was younger, a friend and I had a joke that if we liked something (anything) we would figure out a way to wear it.

kt:  Okay, I am going to end this interview with a fun and silly question. "What superpower would you have?"

Mara: If I had a superpower it would most definitely be flight. I don’t understand how any other super power could be preferable! To be free of gravity! Flight is a theme that emerges often in my art as well—there is a certain indefinable romance and poetry to flying things.

kt: Thanks Mara for taking the time out for this interview

You can find Mara's work at her etsy store Tangible Thing 
and you can find her on facebook