We were lucky to catch up with Anna Karakalou recently and have shared our conversation below.

Anna, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Being a scenic artist/set painter was never on my radar growing up. I have always known that I was an artist and that I wasn’t going to be doing a “normal” job, but I had no idea what that was. Being on set and painting was a dream come true. Making money with a paintbrush was more than ideal.

Anna, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been working as a scenic artist for the pas 12 years, painting the backgrounds for film and television shows, such as Top Chef, The Morning Show, American Ninja Warrior, Glass Onion (Knives Out 2) and many others. I have pivoted to background painting for animation, which is better because you don’t have to be on set at 6 am!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I grew up in Greece and have been surrounded by classical art and beauty my whole life, and so I felt that there was a “correct” way of doing things, and I spent many years trying to figure out what that was. I was always so deep into my own head. I came back to Greece after the loss of my father, and I asked my mom what the right way to do something was. She said the only right way was to have fun doing it. My brain broke free with those few words. My dad had always been my artistic advocate who always pushed me to be better and better as an artist, but my mom, who I had never been as close to as my father, was the one who put me on the path of who I am now, creatively. That has shaped all of my artwork since. Luckily, I have a career where I don’t have to worry about my own creative practice making an income for me to rely on, so I can experiment and have as much fun making what I want to make for myself.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Being an artist can be incredibly lonely. There is something so therapeutic in drawing and painting, that it is easy to rely on that for peace of mind. I realized very late in the game how important it is to have your support group of other artists around you. I made a point of meeting with 2 other artists once a week to keep each other updated with what we are doing and it made a huge difference in the momentum of my artistic journey. I have very little in common with those 2 artists, but having a weekly show and tell and the support of these people helped to push me into new directions that I wouldn’t have found working on my own.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.anna.land
• Instagram: @karakalou
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karakalou/