hanna anderton

A Working Manifesto

Openness to the “New”—-
By being open to new or other experiences, we allow ourselves to learn and grow in new directions.
Value is in the Process—-
If we take the time in getting someplace with an open mind, the opportunity for fulfillment is much greater than attempting to reach a destination.
Don’t Let Fear Make Your Decisions—-
Experiment, do things without thinking about the outcome, let yourself go, you may like how it turns out and if you don’t then nothing is lost.
Love your experiments as you would an ugly child (borrowed from Bruce Mau)
Repetition—-
by repetition and meditation on a process or thought we are able to solidify its meaning and work through tangents.
Don’t give up—-
If things don’t go the way you want, don’t be stubborn and stop; keep going until you get somewhere.
Work with others—-
Foster ideas with other people, thrive and grow together. You don’t know everything, and don’t be intimidated by those who you think might. We all have something to offer one another.
Have fun—-
If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing then there’s got to be a better way to do it or try something else.
Fund your own ideas—-
If part of creating is about letting the process guide you and finding yourself in new places, don’t allow funding from outside sources limit your ideas. Also, don’t owe anybody money!
In the now—-
being an artist is a lifestyle not a job. Pull from every experience and allow yourself to live life in the moment, create art in the moment. It’s your life your living, it’s not controlled by anyone else.

Digital photo manipulation.

Digital photo manipulation.

peraic:

India ink on paper. 45x80cm.

Stuffed With Your Words and False Claims of Progression, Digital Collage of Moleskine sketches, 2011.

Stuffed With Your Words and False Claims of Progression, Digital Collage of Moleskine sketches, 2011.

This morning on my daily journey into downtown, I stepped onto the Blue Line to find a man rapidly attacking his sketchbook with a pen. He somehow managed to find his nutshell amidst an otherwise cramped to capacity train where he was sporadically singing and drawing this mass of figures blending together on top of what looked like a deformed torso. I was able to video him in action for a solid 15 minutes until he put the book away and I slipped in the seat next to him as the heard of 9 to 5ers squeezed out of the car in a unified mass towards the escalators at Clark and Lake. To my surprise he turned to fully engage me in conversation where I was then able to ask about his work. This drawing is one of about 3 he’ll do in a day, all titled by date. He described his practice of drawing like dreams because he allows himself to get lost in these creations where his illustrations will start to reflect his everyday life with moods and figures taking forms resembling friends and people he meets. His friends can flip through his journals, the 50 or so he has, and find themselves reoccurring in his works as they’ve all been developed into characters within his drawings. He’s an architect, interior designer by day, practicing artist for life, he is a wonderful curiosity. He is his art.