Billie Abbott was born in 1963 and spent most of her life in the San Francisco bay area. Her art career was delayed for many years due to poverty. She began painting in 2013, at the age of 50.
In high school Billie studied architectural drafting and design. She sought work in the field of architecture but encountered a wall of resistance. In the early eighties yet another recession was in full swing and many times she heard the phrase, "we don't hire women." She started junior college in 1982 but could not continue going to school. Eventually she found work as a mechanical draftsman, map arber, technical illustrator, and later as a patent illustrator. In 1999 Billie went back to school to finish her two-year degree in Still Photography and went on to complete her Bachelors degree in Cinema, at San Francisco State University. In her late forties, disability began to set in, and she was forced to leave work and embrace early retirement. After a few years she realized there would never be a better time to work in color, something she was never able to do in her work-life. She built a home studio setup and began painting after an intense study of professional practices. "I enjoy working with bold color in my art. The tendency toward realism is a holdout from my drafting days, but I'm finding my Abstract works to be the most creatively freeing."
Painting was a long held desire from early childhood. Her favorite times were the four years she lived in her grandmother's house, in, Santa Cruz, in the 1970's. It was a time when children wandered for hours out on their own. Billie and her sister, would venture down to the Pacific Mall to enjoy the carnival-like atmosphere of the city. They would start on the ocean side of town at the comic book shop to pick up the latest issue of Starlog; move past the Catalyst restaurant down to the used book store to search for mystery and science fiction novels; across the street to the Cooper House to listen to the bands play live music; and upstairs to the apothecary to smell the exotic blends of essential oils. They often ended their trek at MacFarlanes, with a little candy. Occasionally, if the weather was good and their feet didn't hurt too much, they would push on to Lenz Arts store to peruse the wildly colorful handmade papers, and the seemingly endless supply of paints and brushes.
In 2003 Billie moved from Hayward, where she lived for 23 years, back to Santa Cruz for four years, to Marina for nine, and finally Sweet Home, Oregon, where she and her sister reside today.