We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anna Beurskens. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anna below.

Anna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

The long and short of it is yes – I’ve been able to make a full time living from my creative work. But the ways I’ve been creative to make that living have shifted a few times over my career – and I expect they will continue to shift.

I’d break my creative career down into three parts so far.

Part one: Taking on the identity of Interior Designer

I studied Interior Architecture + Design at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. I landed on this path after attempting to be a nutritionist and realizing I needed to take a different path – but more on that later.

With this creative path identified, I would enroll in school at the Academy of Art to graduate with a Bachelors of Fine Arts. I would go on to win a design contest with Starbucks my senior year and graduate into an internship that turned into my first job out of school as a ‘professional creative’. I had the opportunity to take a full time role as my internship ended and was thrilled to accept. I would be working on new concepts for the company.

My career would continue in this field for the next 8 years. I would successfully move up the ranks at Starbucks, then go onto work for an award winning interior design firm. Start an in-house design team for a budding health care tech company, move to the developer side of things for a while, then take on a senior project manager role at an architecture firm just opening their first office on the West Coast. Each role giving me more insights into the business of built environments. And all the while not quite filling my cup.

Part 2a: Small Business Owner: Gallery + Plant store edition

Then, in November 2020, I was ready for a big shift. I wanted more than a fixed salary and my 9-5. I was tired of using my creative skills to build companies for other people. I was ready to take a risk.

So I did.

I quit my job at the architecture firm and set out on a mission – to do all the creative projects I’d been putting off until I got bored or ran out of money. Then, the plan was, I’d find another job, refreshed and ready to rejoin the rat race of being a creative in the field of architecture + design.

But there was a snag in my plan – I never got bored. In fact, I was reinvigorated to make art in a way I hadn’t been since I was 13. Taking on more and more creative projects as the months went by. I certainly wasn’t going to be bored but I still had to solve the issue of my dwindling savings account… I couldn’t imagine going back to work in an office anymore. So I would start a business. My own business.

During this time, I would ride my bike by an empty storefront most days and think – ‘I know I can do something with this space.’

So I did.

I signed the lease on a very run down space that had previously been an alternations shop. When I first invited my good friends to see my new plan – they were all bit concerned for my sanity. But that didn’t stop me – I decided to transform the space into a small plant store and local art gallery to house my work and other local artists’ work. I came up with the branding and logo and Common Space was born.

Finally, I would make a living being my own boss. I would do what I wanted – have ownership of my time… not quite so fast.

Giving my weekends to being in the gallery was not what I imagined it to be.

Luckily, I had also been approached by a recruiter about a senior designer role at a small interior design firm. I said I wasn’t looking for anything full time – but the idea of a part -time salary was intriguing so I took the interview.

I learned the team works remotely, and more imporantly, I quickly came to admire the CEO. So I agreed to work for 1 year part time while I got my business off the ground.

Without the need to be in the gallery everyday in order to pay my rent – I had the space to realize that just wasn’t what I really wanted. I traded being chained to a desk for being chained to the gallery. Time to pivot – again.

Part 2b: Small Business Owner: Private event spaces edition

Luckily we were just coming out of the pandemic and there was a real need for spaces for people to gather in. I transitioned from a retail space to a private event space.

I found a sweet spot in passive and active work. I take care of the plants which I love, and I come and go as I wish, which I love even more. Finally – the balance felt right.

Fast forward a couple years and I now have two spaces I rent for private events. I am also working part time as an interior designer still – over two years later.

Part 3: Taking on the title ‘Artist’

You are catching me about nine months into really taking on the title Artist. I am amidst another transition point. I have started to step into being an Artist and owning that title the way I have owned the title Interior Designer + Small Business Owner to date. I am still both of those things and an Artist.

I have booked my first few shows and am excited to be represented by a gallery I admire. The story is just beginning in this chapter – and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

All of this to say: I think earning a full-time salary as a creative is a creative process. I no longer look to any one avenue for my earnings. The truth is I like having multiple projects going at once and the opportunity to choose where I put my energy day to day.

I couldn’t have gotten to where I am today without all of the experiences that have brought me here. I don’t think there is a way to ‘speed up’ personal and professional growth. I believe you learn the lessons you need to learn at the pace you are able to learn them.

Anna, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I live in San Francisco and work at the intersection of art, design, and craft. I am an interior designer, small business owner, and artist.

In my art, I have started to hone my voice more in the last year or so, narrowing my focus to one medium for a while. This has allowed me to discover more depth in my work by being constrained to stay within the medium and format. It has been really rewarding to watch this happen.

I make wrapped panels out of reclaimed fibers. All of the fibers I use are second hand in some way. I feel really connected to doing everything I can to reduce waste in the products I create and the spaces I design – so having that as a core element of my most recent works has felt really aligned. It is also an interesting design challenge to create works with the fibers available through this avenue at any given time. I also make my own frames for each of the works.

In addition to the fine art pieces I am producing, I love making things for fellow interior designers + clients. I have an ever present “I can make that” voice in my head and love working with wood and other mediums to help achieve the vision of others in collaboration. Be it furniture, a mural that needs painting, or a custom plant hanger – I love the challenge and diversity of making all kinds of things.

I also have a business called Common Space. We rent our spaces for private events as well as host our own unique events and offerings. We just opened our second location in Cow Hollow and are building a community with offerings of wellness focused events at this new location. I love creating the spaces for others to fill with their celebrations and offerings. While I have two locations at this time, I plan to expand into more neighborhoods in San Francisco over the next couple of years.

When I am not working in either of the two spaces listed above, I am also an interior designer with over a decade of experience working in San Francisco and on projects all over the West Coast.

Aside from all of that – I am an outdoors enthusiast. I am an avid trail runner and will take any opportunity to get outside for a few hours. I live by the beach in the Outer Richmond and begin most days with a walk around the neighborhood to greet the Pacific Ocean.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Going way back – when I was in my freshman year of college in Tennessee – I was studying nutrition. I had plans to be a dietitian. I would get a Bachelors of Science and go on from there to grad school.

But during my first semester of classes – I would walk past the architecture classrooms on the same floor and see them building models. I was often wishing I was in their classroom instead of my own as I memorized nutrients and their functions in the body.

I listened to that little voice and enrolled in some intro to design classes the following semester alongside my chemistry classes.

I was sold. I would be an architect or interior designer. I took what would have been my third semester off to work full time as a server and save some money . I decided I wanted to live in San Francisco, and found a school in the city that would have me graduate with a reputable degree in the field of design.

That pivot was huge. It set me on a path I couldn’t even imagine at the time.

Now, 14 years later, I still live in San Francisco and call this city my home.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn being bashful. As a creative, you have to be your own biggest cheerleader, no matter how many people are in your corner.

It takes self confidence and a deep knowing that your perspective is important to share with the world. I have found this voice as a designer through years of experience and have continued to find it as a small business owner and artist.

As a child, I was all too happy to show off whatever drawing or craft I did that day – but somewhere along the way I lost that excitement to share what I did. Learning to come back to being that overjoyed child sharing my creations is a lot of my personal work in becoming a business owner and successful creative.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.linesbyanna.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna__michele__/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-beurskens-024b6069/
• Other: https://commonspacesf.com/ https://www.instagram.com/commonspacesf/