By Alleigh Keyes ’16

Inspired by her late grandmother who shared a similar passion for art, senior Kelly Billig started her artistic journey at the tender age of 8. With exposure to acrylics early on under her grandmother’s guidance, Billig discovered an outlet for self-expression. Now, she is sharing her talents with peers and the community. What started out as an artsy and colorful design on her calculator case became a thriving business after being noticed by friends. Since last year, Billig has been painting away, and her friends are donning her newly decorated calculator cases.

“I started my business to make a little extra money and it just kept growing. I expected to make a couple calculators, but orders continued to come in,” said Billig.

One of Billig’s clients, senior Fikir Ejigineh, loves her calculator because Billig customizes the design to one’s liking. Whether an animal, scenery, sport or Lilly Pulitzer-esque design, Billig can paint it.

Although calculators are Billig’s traditional canvas, she is expanding her work to weddings, dorm rooms and nurseries. “I have expanded to bigger and more professional projects such as canvases and murals,” noted Billig.

In addition to her professional projects, Billig continues to pursue various side projects for the community. She painted artwork to benefit senior Alex Greenbaum’s Relay for Life team. Billig is “an amazing artist [who] wanted to make a tree of life with hands of hope on it [to demonstrate] everyone’s role in the fight to cure cancer,” said Greenbaum.

Furthermore, Billig helped create a mural at Sherwood Elementary School. The mural consists of trees with ornaments, a picket fence and starry background. Last spring, she designed artwork for health teacher Matt Parson’s “Becoming a Warrior” youth sport summer camp. Using Photoshop, she created logos to serve as visual aids. One of them contains the image of an athlete holding a football and volleyball above lettering.

Recently, Billig entered the Weather & Climate Contest, sponsored by the National Aquarium. Her work, which depicts a polar bear on melting ice with factories in the background, received an honorable mention. Currently, the beautiful artwork is hanging up in the executive’s headquarters of Climate Central in Princeton, New Jersey.

Being so passionate about art, Billig shows no signs of slowing down. “Art is something I have been interested in all my life and I’m so lucky to be able to share it with others,” she said.

With the future in mind, Billig plans to pursue business and marketing, fields where her talents will likely come in handy.