About me
Hello there. I’m Anna and I am a video artist. In 1997, when I was 29, after several years of misadventure and chaos, I decided to do a creative arts degree.
This changed everything for me. It was the first time that I felt a creative force that, once I let myself go with it, I found myself making things that amazed and surprised me.
I graduated in 2000 with a new lease of life which enabled me to work within the creative industries in a number of different ways from performing and devising shows with independent theatre companies, facilitating creative workshops, coordinating arts and health projects and assistant lecturing at a university.
After a few years I felt that I wanted to focus on writing. I did an MA in creative writing and following this was commissioned to lead creative writing workshops in mental health settings as well as a range of other gigs in schools and community groups.
But I was becoming ever more frustrated in a sense as, although I had been extremely fortunate to have accrued such a wide range of experience and skill, I had not ever got close to connecting with the creative force that I had experienced in university.
Things came to a head in 2020 when many things changed, both globally and personally, and I reached a very low point. Five years later and I can look back on this time as hugely important.
It was the first time in a long time that I had the space to explore and experiment creatively and reconnect with that creative force I had first found at university.
I started drawing. I wanted to make the pictures move so I learnt how to use stop motion and I Movies. I started making micro films with friends. I realised that making video art was hugely rewarding because I could quickly see the results of my labour and, if I wanted to, I could put it ‘out there’ via any of the many platforms that now exist.
Eventually, I started editing videos for community projects and making music videos for local artists. I created a stop motion workshop for community groups and festivals which I am constantly developing and I am learning how to edit using Da Vinci Resolve which has opened up more possibilities in what I can create as a video artist.
I see video art as an art form that I can fully engage with and that my ADHD brain absolutely loves.