DREI FRAGEN with Anna Judd
Artist Anna Judd shares her artistic wisdom.
Each Wednesday, I ask a different artist the same three questions.
This week's featured guest is
, who’s an incredible artist and a great writer, whom I stumbled across on Substack Notes. Anna Judd blends classical training with bold abstraction, creating globally collected artworks from her forest cabin.
1. What first sparked your interest in creating art?
My Mom is an artist, and creativity was always a living, breathing entity in our house. Part of my early education was learning how to mix complementary colors to make realistic shadows, how to visually break things down into a hundred shapes and translate them into a drawing. How to grid a mural, how to throw a pot. How to make flower crowns.
That said, I always felt like I could have chosen any path and been happy: a firefighter, a doctor, a lawyer, whatever. As a teenager, I decided I wanted to be an artist when someone told me it was the most difficult path a person could take, but also the most rewarding. That's when I got serious about art. Sometimes to my own detriment, I've always been interested in taking the most challenging path. But it's been rewarding indeed.
2. What are your regrets?
Hate to sound cliche, but I'm pretty happy where I'm at, and I don't think I would have arrived here without all the abysmal failures and crushing disappointments. I've made mistakes aplenty. But, if I must: I regret that for so long, I didn't understand the difference between admiration and love, and chased the former when I yearned for the latter.
3. What wisdom would you offer to someone just starting out in their art career, or to anyone exploring art for the first time at any stage of life?
Everyone has their own unique expression, and half the journey (or maybe the entire journey) is discovering what that expression is, and then cultivating it. So often, artists get stuck in the trap of creating what they think other people will like--sometimes for survival, sometimes for validation--instead of that which is their soul's expression. If you aren't enjoying what you're making unless the world loves it, it's a good indication that you're in the trap. It's pretty futile to say, "Avoid this at all costs!" because sometimes you don't even realize you're doing this until years later, and sometimes you just need to pay the bills. However, I will say: Always leave room for deep exploration, for discovery, for experimentation. For quiet, pointless stillness. Always create space for it. Let it be sacred. Let it be yours.
Fine Art Print on Hahnemühle Cotton Rag Paper
Limited Edition Signed Print
Original Available On Request Check out Anna’s writing on Substack and explore her beautiful artwork at www.annajudd.com
Read her latest post (at the time of writing) here:
If you'd like to explore more Drei Fragen interviews, please click the link. This will be the last interview, for now, while I focus on Projekt Rattloch.
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Footnote: Before you throw your toys out of the pram, these words are inspired by the words and works of Dubuffet, interspersed with real quotes.
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Anna is an incredible artist, writer, honest human person. We’re all so lucky to know a little piece of her.
Anna’s advice about making room for pointless stillness is gold. Hard to do in a world obsessed with output, but probably the only way to make something truly yours.