In the Studio

Collected ephmera which inspires - it might get used and it's just nice to have around.

As a child Anna says she was “totally utterly visual – a big sponge that just absorbed everything”.  She initially studied at Gray’s School of Art then later Edinburgh College of Art where she combined weaving with drawing and photography. 

“Making, doing, thinking, drawing” is how Anna describes a typical day in the studio.  She usually has something on one of the looms and will work on it for a while or work on a basket if there is one in progress, or just sit and make or play with something.   

She is surrounded by collected ephemera, which inspires her and which might get used in her work, and she listens to a lot of music – everything from Monteverdi, Louis Armstrong and Santana to Eric Clapton and Radio Four.

Anna has had her own studio since 1989, when the closure of the department of woven textiles in Edinburgh College of Art gave her the impetus to stop teaching and to try and make a go of it as an artist.  The success of her first solo exhibition in Norway helped her to realise that if she could do it once, then she could do it again.  She comments "People say it’s such a nice hobby – it’s not a hobby."

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