Local artist creates app for creatives to monetize their work - Greater Baton Rouge Business Report

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Local artist creates app for creatives to monetize their work 

David Rollins doesn’t believe in the trope of the starving artist. 

Well, actually, he does. He’s painfully attuned to the gauntlet of challenges faced by anyone trying to make a living as a creative.

But, rather than give into the hopelessness many aspiring creators fall victim to, Rollins saw an opportunity. He looked to the growing prominence of side-hustle services like Uber and Waitr, business models that allow people to make money on their own terms and schedules, and wanted to do something similar for creatives. 

Enter BellyFire Studios. Rollins’ new app, soon to be available for free download on Google Play and the App Store, is a hub for artists and crafters to teach lessons in their respective fields, sell their work, book commission projects, and generally make money doing what they do without having to go through a third-party entity like a studio or gallery. 

Rollins set off on the path that would lead him to build BellyFire when he began practicing pottery shortly after graduating from LSU in August 2020. Not having access to the requisite equipment on his own, he enrolled in a local studio to practice his skills. He began teaching lessons there after the studio administrator noticed his proficiency.

That’s when he got to thinking.

“I began to realize that the demand was there for what I had to offer,” Rollins says, “but I wasn’t really taking home the value of what I was offering.” 

Rollins says he has no problem with studios and galleries taking commissions on artists’ work—you can’t blame a business for wanting to make a profit. But he could not make peace with the fact that so many talented creatives have to take up side jobs or even abandon their passions altogether because of how slim a payout they receive when people purchase their work. 

That’s why BellyFire Studio’s M.O. is democratization. Through the app, Rollins wants to democratize and decentralize the avenues by which creative professionals make their money. Standard commercial gallery commission fees vary from about 20% to 60%, depending on the gallery, according to Format. Through BellyFire Studios, though, artists take home an 85% commission for all their services—private lessons, commissioned art projects, musical performances, and anything else offered by the 25-and-counting creatives who have signed up for the app.

Rollins says one of the most rewarding parts of developing this app has been the reception from artists who have joined so far. Reuel Walker, a part-time glass-blower from St. Francisville, says he is thrilled at the opportunities BellyFire affords him. 

“I’ve never been a fantastic salesman,” Walker says.

Read the full story from 225 magazine. Subscribe to the free 225 Daily e-newsletter to keep up with Baton Rouge events and happening. 

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