We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Annalise Neil a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Annalise, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

My skill-building process has not followed a linear path, but has instead been like a the journey of a stream that runs through various ecosystems. I have picked up a craft here, then became interested in something over there, and so on. I began art school as a photography major, and ended as a printmaker. After graduating I began to paint mostly watercolor but also oil and acrylic on canvas. I also learned other skills along the way such as pine needle basketry, loom weaving, and lapidary techniques. For the past four years, I have been focused on a cyanotype/watercolor fusion on both paper and fabric. I am just about to take a workshop on kiln-fired glass–and I have my eye on cast metals next! I find curiosity to be the best directional arrow, both materially and in figuring out how a specific medium might best express an idea. Being willing to go slow and to have humility in starting over at the beginning with a new skill is important, and takes time. But I find that now I have quite a well-stocked tool belt to reach for when deciding how I want to proceed with a new piece. It’s been very illuminating to me to be as informed as I can about the work of other artists, as I encounter new ways to think about construction or a material process in a way that inspires my practice. Obstacles to learning more are figuring out what I don’t know know and who can teach me, and practical parameters of life such as scheduling an out-of-town workshop and figuring out care for my kids while I’m away.

Annalise, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I do wonder: if every person on earth was magically freed from the constraints of managing the basics like food and shelter, would they would prioritize some form of creation? It certainly feels like my best use of time, and is deeply gratifying both personally and as a people-connecting mechanism. I would love to see creativity as a daily practice for all, in engaging and making. I imagine a world that is inclusive of all, and where ideas can be shared and received–even difficult dialog is so important to a vibrant community. To that end, we should all be going to concerts, art shows, and libraries regularly, and be open to discourse on all topics whether they be beautiful, painful or complex. I am deeply concerned about the entanglement of the internet with our daily lives, and strongly advocate for limited time spent in front of a screen (except for reading this very important interview ;)

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

In the last several years I have joined a handful of creative groups and organizations, a world I didn’t think much about when I was younger. I have found excellent community, support and resources this way. They range from medium-specific to regional, to international virtual crit groups, and all have been excellent in their own way. From finding like-minds to hearing about opportunities, they provide a way to connect to many people even if you don’t live in a cultural hotspot.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.annaliseneil.com
• Instagram: @annalise_neil_studio