Today we’d like to introduce you to Anna Lyle.
Hi Anna, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in Birmingham, AL and have always been a little creative since a very young age. I’ve always loved drawing and painting, and at around 7-years-old I began making still life and landscape paintings. Fortunately, I was able to attend a few painting classes in elementary school, and I believe this planted the idea early in my life that working on technique and skill could be a life-long journey. The idea of getting better and better at this medium was super exciting and something I sank my teeth into. Fast forward to my senior year of high school, I was sifting through what to do after graduation. I am thankful that going straight to college was an option for me. And I had always wanted to go to art school. However, I had pressures from family and people in my life that pursuing art professionally would not be beneficial for me in the long run. Because of this, idea of pursuing art as a full-time career felt restraining and unachievable. I decided to lean into something that I thought still incorporated a sense of creativity, but more job stability: architecture. I obtained my Bachelor of Architecture from the College of Art and Design at Mississippi State University in 2015.
For the most part, I enjoyed the type of projects, critical thinking, and creativity that the architectural education gave me. Over the course of the program, I gained overall design sensibilities and most definitely pushed my work ethic. However, working in the architecture industry is of course very different from the type of work we did in undergraduate. Whereas in architecture school, our projects were hands-on: model-making, hand-drafting, making site-specific installations, rendering, and making concrete and wood structures, in the commercial world, it is inherently an office job.
I quickly realized that I don’t fit well working in an office environment and creating for someone else. After graduating in 2015, I worked at various architecture firms in Birmingham. As an architectural designer, I felt analyzed and trapped every day, leaving me with constant anxiety and depression.
It took roughly 5 years for me to finally leap into the bright unknown to work for myself. In November 2020, I applied to several Master of Fine Arts programs across the U.S. I felt confident in how much I was able to teach myself at this point, but I was really craving a mentorship and guidance from others outside of my own critical thinking. I applied hoping I would get in, but also told myself that I could also easily not get in. I was accepted by 5 schools, and ultimately landed on the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) for many concrete reasons, one of them being that it simply felt right, and my intuition clearly was guiding me here. So now, I am currently a first year MFA student at MCAD, working in 2D mixed media, primarily in drawing and painting. My partner and I moved from Alabama to Minnesota in August 2021.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Personally, one of my biggest struggles was balancing a day job while continuing to paint as much as possible, whether it was a commission, a piece for a show, or simply teaching myself new techniques to better my studio practice. For about 5 years working as an architectural designer, I would work Monday through Friday full-time and then go home, eat some dinner, and paint till 2 or 3 in the morning (or until I simply couldn’t keep my eyes open). I’ve always believed that I was not meant to work for someone else, particularly in an office environment. I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit and a strong work ethic, particularly when I’m excited about the work. With all this in mind, patience was and is a big part of my journey. Most days I would be at my desk daydreaming about the painting I was currently working on in my home studio and fantasizing about not having work at a computer 40 hours per week. But I also needed to be smart about when I made the leap into working as a full-time artist. I know I would never feel completely confident in that big step, but that there would be a day when I would know that it was time.
As a working artist, I’ve applied to hundreds of exhibitions, open calls, and exposure opportunities over the past 6+ years. Without actually sitting down and doing the math, I’d say the percentage of these that I was accepted into or achieved live somewhere in the 2% area. But I honestly don’t count this as a struggle because I just see as part of the game of being a working artist. I am aware that jurors and committees that select who to invite to shows or which artists to award are also people. They have their own taste and interests. Aside from that, the pond is an ocean. The world of art/artists is incredibly saturated with talent. So, I suppose in this way, keeping my head held high when I don’t get accepted into something I’ve applied for is a constant “struggle.”
Also, moving across the country is not easy.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Formally, I work mostly with oil paint on wood panel. Although lately, I have been introducing other medium into my work such as graphite, charcoal, acrylic paint, oil pastel, and ink. Conceptually, I am drawn to themes of comfort versus risk, usually finding inspiration in my own personal journey of self-discovery and freedom. My process and my work live in this realm of full understanding of a concrete reality and distortion through mark making or an absence of information. To explore these concepts, I use the human figure, or attributes of the human figure, in conjunction with representation of patterns and various marks through other medium. I am dissecting the representation of the human figure and behavior as it relates, or not, to the environment in which it lives or creates.
In certain visual moments in my work there appears to be a rigidity through realistically rendering. I have discovered that my past life in architecture has an impact on how I “design” my work. With each piece, I challenge myself to break away from what I know as reality and introduce abstraction by intuitive mark-making or other visual devices. By combining realism and abstraction, I am distorting what the reality within the work truly is, allowing the viewer to create their own understanding based on their own experiences and idea of self.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Pursue your passions with your whole heart. Over the years I’ve had employers, coworkers, and mentors tell me to put more effort into my day job and gain a passion for architecture. Truth be told, it was never a passion, but simply a job to pay the bills. Your intuition is the most trustworthy thing you have. Plan big moves wisely. But once it’s your time, jump.
Contact Info:
- Email: annalyleart@gmail.com
- Website: www.annalyle.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annalyleart
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annalyleart
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/annalyleart
Image Credits
Aly Hansen (@alyhansenn)
