We were lucky to catch up with Annette Israel recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Annette thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you share a story about the kindest thing someone has done for you and why it mattered so much or was so meaningful to you?

Seated at a table during a book signing for my first book, Horsepower – A Memoir a woman approached me. Her steps appeared reserved.

“Will you please sign my copy of your book,” she said. “I bought it two years ago.”

The woman handed me the book. The front and back covers were worn white from being held. All of the pages had been loosed from the spine and each page had been dog-eared and had notes scrawled on them. Tears filled my eyes.

“I’m so sorry for what it looks like,” the woman said. “but I can’t count the number of times I’ve read it and the number of people I’ve loaned it to. I’m really sorry.”

“You don’t understand,” I said. “To see my book so well-read and so well-loved that it’s worn to this extent is the greatest compliment an author could ever receive.”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I have been drawing horses since before I can remember. My mother saved some of my first artwork and dated them listing my age as four and some even younger. I have also been a writer all of my life and was urged into a career as an author from the time I was an elementary student.

In junior and senior high schools I had my own studio in the basement of each school where I was free to work on my oil paintings. I was an award-winning artist at the age of fifteen.

I have loved and owned horses all of my life and although I can paint any animal, scene, or person, my subjects are only horses.

My writing is focused on life events both memoir and fiction. I have four published books, Horsepower – A Memoir, The Blue Bead, A Deal for Nefertiti, and New Tires. I’m currently working on my fifth and sixth books.

I love beginning a new project – a book or a painting. Because of the many, and varied life experiences I’ve had, I’m able to present my written characters with emotion and truth. I strive to present my characters as those my readers can identify with. I write with humor and honesty and many writings have been faith-based.

I love bringing a horse to life on canvas or parchment. I work with oils and pastels. I am always pleased when I have captured a particular horse’s personality and inner fire for life, whether this is a horse I’ve created or it’s commissioned by the owner of that horse. I’m thrilled when an owner of a beloved horse becomes moved by my work and sees right in front of them that I captured their special friend and partner.

Is there a mission driving your creative journey?

There isn’t any mission. It’s not like an author or artist devises a mission statement. That doesn’t apply to us. Much of what drives an author and/or an artist cannot be adequately put down on paper and it’s not easily explained because it’s something held deep within the unnamed spaces between the heart and the mind. It’s deeply personal and unique to each artist. Perhaps one of the simplest ways for me to describe the drive is that it’s something you can’t, not do. It is what we are.  It identifies us more than our first name, more than the gender assigned to us, more than our place and our time of birth.

Breathing is necessary to sustain life. Sustenance is necessary to maintain life. For an author, putting words on paper is a necessity to sustain life. For an artist, putting one’s hands in oil paintings and pastels, or whatever medium is chosen is needed to sustain life.

We can talk about why we breathe and why we eat food and drink water, but we don’t. We do both things. We just do them.

I once heard it said that if you want to be an author, you have to write. Want gets us nowhere until we actually – do.
If you aspire to be an artist, you have to paint. Aspirations get us nowhere until we actually – do.

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

I grew up writing with just a #2 pencil. Everything was handwritten back then. I remember the manual typewriters and I was overjoyed when I received one for Christmas as a child. I remember when my junior high school purchased electric typewriters and how the speed of writing anything forever changed.

With each new invention, however, I have to admit that I resisted joining others in their excitement. The old ways seemed perfectly acceptable to me. When the computer age blasted onto the scene and became the way of life, I also resisted these changes. I had become somewhat proficient with a word processor but I remained staunch in my decision to avoid the computer world. Learning to use a computer and all that it includes, such as email and social media, seemed too much to try and too much to use.

I can’t specifically say when the moment of reconsideration occurred or even how I eventually joined the computer world, but I did. It happened in the proverbial baby steps and each time I completed any small task on the computer or learned something new, I felt a stunning sense of accomplishment. I would say that, as of now, I’m quite secure taking off at a nice jog on my computer. I’ve learned so much, I now realize that the computer and all future inventions are for ease and speed to further our craft and ability to communicate. Resistance has no relevance. Technology is here to stay.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.annetteisraelauthorartist.com
• Facebook: Annette Israel Author & Artist