We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anna Amejko Peterson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Anna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you wish you had started sooner?

I truly feel that my career as an artist came about at the perfect time. I had a realization about a few months in, that so many of the skills I utilize in the process of making my art have been learned in previous careers and schooling paths. I had never intended to be an artist, so it was pretty cool to step back and see how everything ended up aligning just right. in order to bring me to my current place. Prior to Amejko Artistry, I had gotten my fashion degree in Los Angeles, CA, and then spent 15 years working as a swimwear designer in the industry.
This is primarily where I learned not only hand-sketching skills, but also computer programs such as Illustrator and Photoshop, which are essential to my art process now.
Throughout school, I also took as many art theory and history classes as I could. You really see my love for balanced color, shapes and patterns come through strongly in all of my designs.
I was so lucky that my fashion career took me all around the world for inspiration trips and photoshoots. Those travels trained my eyes to find details in everything from tile mosaics, to street art, to textiles, etc. My vacation camera roll these days is often still filled with these types of photos.
I look back on each life path I took with such gratitude, because it all came together in the perfect way and made Amejko Artistry possible.

Anna, 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?

The most frequent question I get asked is “How did you come up with the idea to do this type of art?” And the honest answer is that I needed to get out of the grind of my day-to-day, fast paced fashion career, in order to allow myself the space to let true creativity start flowing again.
I had been working as a swimwear designer for more than 15 years in Los Angeles and Orange County. I loved my job, and can honestly say that I felt like my career was a huge part of my identity. But I ended up getting married 5 years ago, and had to leave everything behind, moving first briefly to San Francisco, before eventually settling in Bend, OR.
I suddenly found myself in a small town, with no fashion prospects to speak of. I felt directionless, and very uncertain about what my future would look like. I spent a lot of time stressing about this, but eventually just decided to relax and soak in my new surroundings. I put my focus on decorating my new home…And that’s when the magic happened.
I have always had a love of textural art and textiles, and was on the hunt to find something unique for my blank walls. I stumbled upon a vintage, rustic wooden bowl. It had holes drilled along the top rim, and twine was decoratively woven through. I stood there looking at this bowl, and the idea just came to me – I wondered if i could drill holes through a wood panel, then use fiber to weave a design into it ??And voila! The beginning of Amejko Artistry was born.
Having never worked with yarn in my life, or picked up a drill, needless to say there were many months of painful trial and error as I figured out the process. I had no one to learn from, so I had to research everything from scratch.
But eventually, I completed my first piece. Friends and family began ordering custom pieces. Then neighbors. And before long, it became obvious that my new career had shown up…right when I had finally stopped stressing and allowed myself some room to breathe a little,

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect for me is definitely working on custom pieces for clients. My customers absolutely love the collaborative part of the process. From brainstorming the overall design, to choosing wood stains, all the way down to sometimes hand selecting each and every yarn color that will go into their unique piece. It’s not often with art that you get to end up with something so truly bespoke to the individual,

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

For me, it was the practical side of having to teach myself new skills in order to bring my art to life. I had always had a tendency to put walls up in my mind when it came to working with power tools in particular. So my greatest frustration in the beginning was standing in the aisles of Home Depot, having no clue where to turn or what questions to even ask. But one step after another, I stayed determined, and figured out the solutions, one by one. And now I pride myself in being known as the “handy” one in my house, haha.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.amejkoartistry.com
• Instagram: amejkoartistry

Image Credits
Photographer – Dace Hines