​ Anna Droege, studying at Oberlin College in Ohio as a Biology graduate has been known to produce a tremendous amount of work in the form of doodles, drawings, illustrations and paintings on any surface imaginable. I first worked with Anna on a project where we used milk paints to cover the ceiling of her bedroom with all the drawings and whimsical images we could muster. Her are her responses to some classic artist questions.
When did you start making art?
I’m not sure when I began. It’s the age-old story of drawing since I could hold a pen. The evolution of a scribble. I did not consider it art until perhaps this year. Numerous amazing people who have insisted that it is. Thank you beyond what I can say.
Have you ever sold anything before? A friend of my mother brought together a group of artist to sell art for a day in a building somewhere. I was maybe 12 and she offered me a room she had left over. I had a small table in the corner where I sold greeting cards with my art on it, and barely filled a one wall with original line drawings on white printer paper framed in black construction paper. I sold out of greeting cards, my father bought a framed picture, and everyone kept dropping their kids off in my room thinking it was free childcare. I felt uncomfortable the whole time. I have been commissioned to do multiple posters for school events and similar small projects. What is your favorite medium? For the majority of my life my drawings were constructed on backs of rejected paper, margins of my homework, and on my skin. My favorite teachers were the ones that would let me finish my drawing before I handed the test in. But I’ve been trying to allow myself to be self-validated and give my art space and resources to be. I’ve been dabbling in all sorts of painting, but I find watercolors to be my favorite. I like that the paint doesn’t let you have full control, that you have to communicate and compromise with it. Paint with too much control keeps me outside my head with all its choices, watercolors force me into places I didn’t mean to go. Do you have an artist you look up to?
I did not consider myself an artist until late Sophomore or early Junior year of college. Art was a personal thing, a way to let my mind leak out and reveal itself to me. It wasn’t something I did, it was just always there. Therefore I never tried to cultivate it actively, I avoided classes and never thought about allowing other artists to influence me. But influence is not often a choice. There are a lot of children’s book illustrations I’ve realized have had some effect on my style and more recently I have been trying to compile artists I feel drawn to. Looking up to artists is something I am trying to do more. Actually, I’m trying to find mentors and heroes in many parts of my life but perhaps it’s foolish to seek out influence.
Were you formally educated in art? I took a Photoshop class, 2 ceramics classes, and begrudgingly took the intro art class in high school. I never felt any sort of artist connection to any of them. In college, I have taken 2 and am slowly getting over my stubborn aversion to artistic instruction. I still have not felt that I can perform satisfactorily in classes and do most of my work on my own, though I have found the classes have effect my skill level positively and greatly. I am taking another this fall and look forward to how it will push me forward.
How have you continued to make art in your life, do you have a plan for the future? Posters have been a great way to get comfortable with my work on display and in a formal, serious setting. I will continue these and have been commissioned to do small projects in the greater community. I am currently looking for a way to use art to draw people into topics that seem exclusive, the beauty in biology, in statistics… My future is at a deliciously uncertain point, as it is with most college seniors. I look forward to seeing how the world twists my intentions. Is it hard to find time? No. Drawing is my oldest companion. I do not have to explain my thoughts and feelings, I do not have to understand them, but it always throws me an unexpected response that I cannot avoid and crave to watch it form in front of me. I may not create art pieces for the world to view, but there will always be space in my life for drawing. A lot of your work is figurative, are there any characters you draw repeatedly?
Not on purpose. People always tell me I draw dancers, but the truth is that very few of them are dancing. If I had to put words to it, which feels a little wrong, I would say that they are not dancing, they are feeling. A dance feels too cold, too calculated. Dances are extraordinary acts of art, full of pain and joy and beauty, but it exists in time and it begins and it ends. It is often planned out and perfected, practices over and over to prepare for the final performance. Because of this, dancer never fit right for me though I understand why people see it as such. I don’t draw from sight, I’m not very good at drawing from sight alone and I can never get lost in the process, my work is some sort of embodiment of a piece of myself and whatever pieces of the world I can grab on to. I don’t think I fully understand it and I’m not sure I want to.
Are of your figures based on real people? Not often, though I am sure my mind draws inspiration from everyone I’ve seen. Recently I feel like I’ve been seeing people as little drawings running around, so the answer to this question could soon change.
Do you have a source of inspiration that drives you? Blank space. (Paper, wall, concrete, empty road, large fields, empty stadiums, being in a store when it’s closed and everyone has left, before anyone gets home, rain, fresh snow, after I have cried hard, vacated dorm rooms, moving quickly, strangers….)
Would you ever want to make art for a living, or a profit? I am not sure I know how to exist fully with expectation yet. I’m working on it. But it would be amazing if I could pull it off.
Did anyone influence you to start making art and how so? I’m not sure I was influenced to start or to continue drawing, but I was unforgettably influenced to believe it was art and to show it to the world. My family, particularly my mother and my older sister, have given me unconditional support and extreme enthusiasm. It feels almost unfair. They never fail to make me feel extraordinary and capable. Many artists in my life have given me professional validation, something that family cannot really provide, that gave me the courage to show it under the label of art and eased some of the outsider feeling of being a bedroom artist. My drawings would still be going from scrap paper to trash can if it weren’t for these people. I am unbelievably thankful.