Today we’d like to introduce you to Anna Byars
Anna, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My love for art started as a child. I loved the freedom and playfulness that came along with art making. As a three-year-old, I had the opportunity to paint and I decided to use every color that was available to me which naturally ended in a large brown painting. As I grew older, I kept creating artwork as a way to destress myself and by the time I was in high school, I realized I was fully in love. I went to undergrad at the College of Charleston with the knowledge that Studio Art was the degree I would pursue. While I was there I also fell in love with art history, specifically medieval art history and from there I ended up with a degree in both Studio Art and Art History. I took a couple of years to work and develop my skill level before going to graduate school at the University of South Carolina to pursue a Master in Fine Arts. While in grad school I further developed my skills, pushed beyond my comfort zone, changed the way I created art, and realized I had a love for teaching. I had the opportunity to teach during my grad school years and I have continued teaching after completing my degree.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I have had several struggles while pursuing art as my profession. Most of my struggles were breaking out of my comfort zone. For years, I became used to creating work that was representational and within a confined frame. The work I had been creating was typically landscape-based with a person or persons depicted in it. The work I created was Romanticist in feeling. What was conventional to me began to bore me and I was encouraged by mentors to think about how I can push past what I had been creating and move beyond it. This was difficult for me. What was I supposed to create? What if I get bored of it or if I end up disliking the work I create? I kept drawing throughout this struggle to figure out what I wanted within my art. After about a year, stuck in a rut, realization hit me. While in grad school, I had an instructor who would have us draw – what I would consider – meditatively. I was drawing what my day felt like when I realized, this is it. Thinking back to my childhood and what I thought about artmaking then is the same now. Artwork is freeing and playful, all the while being an expression of the self. I did not need to confine my work to a particular structure but instead let it be free. When I decided to let go of the box I would confine my work to, I found that the work I am now creating brought back that sense of freedom. My work drastically changed from representational to abstract, from what was primarily black and white to color.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a printmaker and I also teach printmaking. I work within a variety of printmaking mediums including lithography, relief, intaglio, silkscreen, monotypes, and monoprints. I also work with digital media and photography. I am currently exploring the concept of transcendence. It is something that is brief and fleeting but the memory of the moment lasts. As an undergraduate concentrating in medieval art history I discovered gothic cathedrals evoke the idea of transcendence through the use of stained glass. To reach the upper chapel of Saint-Chapelle in Paris, France, you have to go up a narrow winding staircase that billows out into a vast expanse of bejeweled light where all the colors of the natural world funnel into one space. Colored light fully enveloped me and was an awe-inspiring sight. It was like being inside a reliquary. In creating imagery, I seek an experience of transcendence that gives me an “a-ha” moment where I feel the piece is close to what I would consider transcendent to myself and may act as so for others. My studio methodology is the creation of work through spontaneous, meditative line-work to create bright, colorful, and reflective imagery. For one of my recent works I made, Transform #5, I screenprinted on foil, cut out negative space, photographed some of the prints, digitally edited and altered the photos, and created a whole new work that can be tessellated. This work was meditative and I relied on intuition to see the work to its end result. I am most proud that I let go of what I wanted an artwork to look like and instead relying on intuition when creating a work. This change in my approach led to surprises and discoveries within my art that resulted in free-flowing creations.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I like the art community we have in Columbia. There is a lot of camaraderie and support from artist to artist within the city. I also love going on the Riverwalk and walking around the downtown area. I do wish there were more art galleries and more parks around the city.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.annaschumann.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annaschumann.art/
