We caught up with the brilliant and insightful David Onri Anderson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
David Onri, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I have been drawing and using my imagination to play with color and form since I was 3 years old, as far as I can remember. Throughout my childhood and young adult life I never felt like I belonged anywhere exactly. I always preferred my imagination and enjoyed solitude and nature. At some point in everything I pursued whether it was a job, or a hobby or sport, I came to an end where I never felt like I was using my full potential. This would always get under my skin, and I would draw all the time to relieve anxiety. After a while I realized I was maybe the strongest at being what some people might call an ‘artist’. I remember graduating art school in 2016 and afterward getting a job at a local deli. I actually really enjoyed the job and the people I worked with. For the first time in my life, I felt a sense of balance with both employment and artistic pursuit. However, after only a few months of working there, they fired me. The boss woman even said to me with a smirk, maybe you’ll be a professional artist now! That made me feel horrible. But after a while, I was thinking, you know, maybe she’s right. Ever since then, I have been making art the center of my life as both a spiritual practice and a way of living and making an income. The income part is beyond my control, so in a way, every part of the art life for me is spiritual.
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 back background and context?
I am a French-Algerian-American Sephardic Jew, born in Nashville, TN in 1993. My Mother is from Paris, France and my Father from the USA— they met in art school in Florida. They are both creative people! I am known for my paintings that involve thinly and smoothly applied acrylic paint on raw canvas leaving super minute edges of raw canvas in between every shape. I depict things from my imagination such as apple cores, banana peels, angels, spiritual and cosmic beings, and landscapes. I often use a freehand approach, no tape, no tools besides paintbrush and paint, and I also like to use organic pigments from flowers, herbs, nuts, grasses, and soil from my garden and surrounding area. I am inspired by flat art like Byzantine icon paintings, Japanese prints, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Assyrian wall reliefs, and various cartoons. I am a myth maker who seeks out truths from ancient times as well as modern, and puts them together into one moment—a painting. In doing so I use sustainable materials and processes, and hope to heal the viewer as well as myself with these myths and materials.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to unlearn this idea of being the best, or being ambitious to no end. I think it is good to try your hardest and be your best, to give it your all. But I do not think you can ever feel satisfied with that way of thinking. I don’t think you can ever feel like it is enough, until you yourself say, this is actually enough. In our society everyone is always competing for something, people are working hard to survive and to thrive. But to me, art is not about that. Good art is already secure in itself and does not need to compete. It can be gentle and beautiful and not prove anything and still be strong, and even political. A good artist makes art because they are inspired, not because they need to pay bills or build a following. It is a devotion, you should expect nothing in return. Making the art is itself a gift. If people support that, wonderful, but that is not to be expected.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Being an artist is an amazing gift because you have the power to see things differently at any moment—to appreciate beauty where there is seemingly none. I think the mind and heart are the key to a magical reality, and when put into practice they produce art. The artistic life has lead me deeper into practices of mediation, music, and ritual spells that make my life more enchanting and mysterious. My inspiration to make paintings seems unending, and this gives me a constant undertone of joy to create, no matter what the circumstances. I know I can always imagine beautiful things in my head, even if I couldn’t use my hands anymore.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.davidonrianderson.com
- Instagram: @davidonri