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

Anna, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I worked as an architectural designer for over 5 years. I remember after I graduated with my Bachelor of Architecture and began working full-time thinking, I am truly unhappy working in an office environment and using my creativity under someone else’s name. Within the first month of my first architectural job, I knew that my countdown began of how long I could last in an office/computer job. It felt too restrictive on how I felt I could present myself personally and professionally. After working in a few different architecture firms, saving money over 5 years, teaching myself how to paint realism, and showing/selling my work in galleries, competitions, and festivals, I finally made the leap to quit my day job and work for myself as an artist in December 2020.

This was definitely a huge risk; there were so many unknowns for me in making this leap. I was unhappy working for someone else at a computer full-time, but it’s more than that. I have wanted to be an artist, specifically a painter, my entire life. I’ve been painting since I was a young child. I have always felt that it was my calling: to use my talent and tenacity to work for myself as an artist. Once I felt that I had saved up enough money to begin self-employment full-time, potentially venture into getting my MFA degree, and felt that I had improved my painting skills and techniques enough, then I made the leap to quit my day job. It was scary, but I absolutely do not regret it and I am so grateful to be where I am today with that decision.

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 am from Birmingham, AL. I got my Bachelor of Architecture from Mississippi State University in 2015, and then returned to Birmingham to work as an architectural designer.

As a painter, I am drawn to themes of comfort and assuredness versus risk and the unknown, usually finding inspiration in my own personal journey of self-discovery and freedom. This thought process envelops larger systems outside of myself such as sexism and hyper-religiosity and how they affect our perceptions of our bodies in their aesthetic and function. My process and my work live in this realm of a concrete reality and distortion through mark making or an absence of information.
As someone with an anxiety disorder, I work with themes around how I and people with similar backgrounds or points of view perceive their own bodies and how our bodies function, with physical and/or anxiety-based pain. I find that these themes are important as my own body perception is a daily occurrence of both struggle and enlightenment. My hyper-fixations on how my body appears and operates informs my attention to detail in my work and the overall compositions.
Understanding how my body and mind function has been vital to furthering my art practice, through process, execution, and final presentation. I work with both figure and spatial perceptions, looking for ways to express discomfort and hope with how I portray the body.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I think I’m still learning this lesson: my work does not need to meet the expectations of anyone. As long as what I’m working on feels authentic and vulnerable for me, the rest will fall in line.

Is there a mission driving your creative journey?

As in my artist statement, I think I’ll always be pursuing this idea of self-discovery. We’re all constantly changing and I aim to always be growing and evolving. So this idea of self-discovery and freedom through vulnerability will always be relevant to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.annalyle.com
• Instagram: @annalyleart
• Facebook: Anna Lyle Art

Image Credits
All images are of original work and are copyright property of Anna Lyle