We recently connected with Anna K Lemnitzer and have shared our conversation below.
Anna K, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
I absolutely believe in and love what I do (art professor going on 13 years, art education 20+ years, and always creative)! Yet, there are moments in the hectic schedule of teaching art, while consistently keeping up with my own studio practice, that I feel the pangs of burn out, and find myself wondering about other job opportunities. Imagining a true 9-5 gig that I leave when I leave the office, with a great salary – what would that be like? A job where my passion isn’t my employment sounds like respite.
I have held different jobs throughout my life, from house painting crews to working in doctors offices, even holding administrative positions, but as much as I learned from them, I found myself often bored with the work. I wasn’t putting my innate and trained abilities to the grindstone. I find pride and joy in putting my expertise to work. Ultimately, having a job that allows me to process my ideas through materials, while working with others who want the same, is a gift.
When pondering, “What else would I want to do?” The pay to teach art at the university level is pretty low, but it does give you a cool title haha! However, it allows for a certain lifestyle. Summers off give me the opportunity to make my own art, take commissions, and participate in arts residencies throughout the country. These residencies let me work with local communities. Ultimately, unless life demands otherwise, I am a lifer in the arts.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Currently I am an assistant professor of Art and Design at West Texas A&M University where I have been working since fall of 021. I have presented, exhibited, and collaborated with such locals as National Wet Paint, CICA in Korea, Teachers College, Columbia University, and pivoted to virtual beginning summer of 2020 with various collaborations with institutions such as the Andy Warhol Museum. I was an associate professor and the director for the Interdisciplinary Arts Major, Art Program at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford from 2013 – 2021. In 2019 I was awarded the Chairs Award for Excellence in Teaching, this is one of the highlights of my career, as it was an honor to be recognized by my peers, mentors and students.
My training in the arts has essentially been going on since I was a child; my mom dabbled in ceramics, my nana was obsessed with fashion and the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright (I always got to tag along), my uncle taught me sculpture through carving around the campfire, and I got to see my dad working in construction and concrete. It was inevitable that I would fall in love with design, structure and materiality.
Formally, I earned an MFA in Art from The University of Montana, School of Art in 2012, and a BFA in Art Education emphasis Sculpture from The University of Arizona, School of Art in 2005. I have been working in arts education in various capacities since 2002. That includes my five year stint as a high school art teacher in Tucson, AZ. I’ve moonlighted as an art director for a startup company, It’s American Press (we won a Red Dot Award), worked on literary publications, and even was a muralist. Working as a commission artist and at art residencies are such gifts! Last year I had the chance to create a living sculpture through the NOLA Artist Incubator and a large scale photo bashed mural for The Wilds Sunshine Factory’s education center in Kane, PA. Both were fun firsts! Everything brings me to a deeper understanding of this path called life.
Working with my hands and broadening an understanding of this world is my happy place, where I find zen. My recent body of work is titled Manifestations. Since moving to the Texas Panhandle, I find myself inspired by the mist of magenta mornings, the quick knife of the wind, and the expanse – I have watched tumbleweeds dance and the spider weave. My current body of work intertwines and plays with repetition in form, pattern, and color of this diverse region through mixing materiality both in two and three dimensions. The exhibition consists of drawings and ephemeral, crystalline and woven sculptures. Manifestations, is influenced by a rich mine of playful information that ties into my deep interest in psychology, physics, biology and spirituality. It truly brings me joy and allows me to continue to create and investigate.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
After I graduated with an MFA (this is a terminal degree in the arts, equivalent to a doctorate as you have to do a dissertation, publish, defend, and create a large body of work…that is if you get accepted into the program after being there a year…it’s intense stuff!) in May of 2012, I found myself without a full time job or a place to live, not to mention the school loans. You often don’t think about what comes after graduation when you are in the midst of it all.
I couldn’t find a job in the arts for the life of me, let alone a good paying job period. All I had was my truck and a position at an auto parts store that barely paid $9 an hour. This was in Missoula, MT, a very expensive place to live, even then. Though initially I applied to at least 60 different art professor positions, I only managed to get an adjunct position in a town about two hours away. So I took it! I was dead set on making sure I would put my degree to work. I lucked out and a friend who’d taught there before let me rent a small unfurnished room for about $100 bucks a month.
When I wasn’t teaching design during one of the university block sessions, I would drive down to Arizona, stay with family and work odd jobs. One was as an apprentice to a metal artist. I barely scraped by with $13,000 that year, and it wasn’t easy, but I managed to make it work! I learned a lot about how to make groceries stretch, how to camp in your truck, even went on a few climbing trips out west, and made many new friends.
And wouldn’t you know it, in January of that year I got a call back and second in person interview for an arts position, by that time the number of applications ranged in the 90’s. You can’t knock hard work and perseverance. Even when it feels like nothing is going your way, keep going. I practiced hard for this position and wouldn’t you know it, I got it! I became the Art Program Director and professor at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford in the Allegheny National Forest of NW PA. I am so grateful for the hard stuff, it makes you tough and thankful for the easy stuff too!
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Playing! Play has been so important to me throughout my life and in my arts practice. As an intrinsic form of the human developmental experience, nurturing play leads to the building of connection, communication, and creation. Play is a crucial part of how we as humans construct self, interact, learn, and innovate in almost every sector. With the rise of extrinsic motivators feeding mental health, avoidant behaviors, and conflict, creatives and art programs are now more critical than ever in the formulation of play as an essential aspect of growth. Fear of failure stunts progress, while digital simulacrums often become rabbit holes. Play allows us to embrace fear and move through it. Fear signifies that there is something on the other side that we need to go toward. And I am not talking about dangerous situations here. Play allows us to dance with our anxious emotions, to work through the unfamiliar, reclaim them, create connections, and develop self control. Play is a natural part of biology. It is literally natures way of fostering growth for strength, maturity and ability. Playing through fear of the other creates physical ability and awareness, it is social by its nature. It’s how we interact with one another, learn who we are comfortable with, trust, and want more from. It’s a back and forth of learning boundaries. Play taught me that conflict isn’t a bad thing. Rather, it’s an opportunity to learn. And as my dad says, when you’re having a hard time, it’s time to have fun!
“The obstacle that every artist has to overcome is fear. We fear how the artwork will be perceived. we fear that we aren’t good enough. We fear the finances of a piece. We fear countless other things that are part of the work we do. But this hurdle of fear is brought down we we stop making for others, when we work, not to complete an assignment, but genuinely to satisfy the itch that causes us to create in the first place.” – Creative Practices, pg 93, Jonathan Engelien
Contact Info:
- Website: https://annaklemnitzer.com/
- Instagram: @anna_the_art_professor
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/anna-lemnitzer-59b3807a
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@alchemistslover6760?si=m8afW2cI0DnlxROb
- Other: https://indd.adobe.com/view/d8c17b87-618c-498c-9932-01e869f0e8d2