Hope Batterson is an artist, interior designer, and published author living in the Chicagoland area. After earning her BFA in Interior Design from a CIDA-accredited college, she began her career working on high-end residential projects. Over the years, she’s added hospitality, senior living, and veterinary care to her portfolio, before transitioning to historic home renovations.

Hope began her exploration into art and design at a very young age, but did not pursue it professionally until many years later, following many years of research in art history. This research centered around materiality in Italian Renaissance and Baroque sculpture, which compounded an already present love for figurative art. She found herself focusing on the dynamics of the human body, the ways in which it interacts with the world, and how that interaction is translated into a visual medium.

A common theme across Hope’s portfolio is connection. Her work incorporates nods to classical tropes and stories, while being inspired by human relationships. From intimate interior spaces, to depictions between family and friends, to abstracted representations that deal with loss, grief, and pain, Hope’s work weaves process-driven intimacy with the visual world. The act of putting pen to paper is as much art as the finished piece. Frenzied marks or slow, deliberate strokes are dependent upon the connection between artist, material, and construct.