Creative of the Month: Anna Nunez

Creative of the Month

Anna Nunez

1) Tell us a little bit about yourself and why you consider yourself a Creative.

Hello! My name’s Anna. I was born in Ohio, grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida and now I live in a little 1920’s apartment in downtown Fort Myers with my husband and lots of plant children (that can be a thing right?). I initially moved to the Fort in 2013 to start my bachelors in studio art, with minors in marketing and advertising. I’m graduating forms hat four year journey this week actually – so I’ll be doing happy dances from here on out this month.

My reasoning for considering myself a creative is really just tied to who I am and what I always tend to gravitate towards. Thankfully, I can say that my upbringing and education has always involved environments that have fostered and encouraged my creativity. From the finger paintings days with mom, onward, I can’t recount a moment in my life where I wasn’t thinking about what I could make next. I’ve been through all kinds of media – sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, drawing, painting, digital media, etc. – and I happy to say that I’ve found that it’s not really the media that I work with that defines what I’m capable of. I consider myself an artist at the core because of my constant need to use my hands to create. At this moment in life, I’m choosing graphic design and illustration to fulfill that side of me, and I’ve been loving the chance to utilize my talents in that area to help the needs of business owners with big dreams. www.annanunez.co is the site under which I do all kinds of freelance design work that’s tied to my capabilities in illustration, lettering and design.

2) Who inspires you the most?

I feel like I’m the most inspired by people that I’m close to in my personal life. My mom, my dad, my husband. It’s honestly hard to choose between those three because they all live their lives in ways that make me just want to be an all around better human.

My parents inspire me in my relationship with my husband, with the way that they support each other. My mom inspires me in the way that she uses her creative gifts to give so generously of her time and talents. And my husband’s gifts as a musician and just overall skill for recognizing good art and good design are things that motivate and inspire me to improve on a daily basis.

3) What is the last book you read and what is your all time favorite read?

The last book I read was Walking on Water by Madeleine L’Engle. I read it as part of my research for my senior project this year when i was exploring and commenting on the ambiguity that is the creative process – specifically when dealing with the creation of abstract artwork that can feel so mysterious and intuitive. What I found in L’Engle’s book was a beautiful, insightful conversation on the relation of Christian faith to artwork and the divine nature of that is creativity. It’s also just a really cool life read – even if you’re not a painter or a writer – as it encourages the reader to stop and appreciate the incredible, bigger picture side of life.

And even though I think Walking on Water might be my new all time favorite read, I know that I could read The Catcher in the Rye or Great Gatsby or 1984 (those mandatory high school books that rock your world), any day and I’d enjoy them over again.

4) How do you express yourself?

Any act of creativity is a form of self expression for me. The way I decide to dress each day, whether or not I decide to plate my breakfast in a pretty way, my arrangement of my desk before I sit down to draw, how my house is decorated, my hair, my choice of plants that I surround myself with – and the list just goes on. I’m constantly looking for moments in my day where I can use my creative eye to elevate aesthetics, and find inspiration in what I can control. This things that I can touch, make beautiful or satisfying – are what give me that personal satisfaction that I accomplished something self-reflective of who I really am that day.

5) What is your most favorite project that you’ve ever worked on?

I can’t say that I have any particular project that stands out as my favorite, but I will say that really memorable kinds of projects seem to often be the ones where people come to me with a really tangible idea of what my illustration is going to be made into. It could be illustrations for a book, a pin design, a t-shirt design, tattoo, etc. – all of those just come with the knowledge that my work is going to be experienced in a way that spans beyond the digital world, and pretty that’s fun.

6) What would be your biggest and wildest dream concerning your creative talent?

It’s funny, the bigger I dream, the less wild or impossible my dreams seem to feel. I’d say a big dream of mine right now would be to try out textile design and to apply my illustrations and paintings to fabric for a clothing line.

7) Describe your perfect day.

My perfect day would be waking up at 8am, picking up my suitcase (because I backed the night before, of course), and driving to the airport with my husband. We would get there and hope on a plane that would take us to Montreal, Canada. (It would fly us there in like 30 minutes, because in this dream world, super high-speed planes exist.) Then we would arrive and spend the whole day eating at all the best restaurants, walking in and out of the little shops and visiting museums. Then we’d end the day sitting a the top of Mont Royal, overlooking the city.

I paint this picture to say that my best days seem to always be had when I’m away from home, experiencing new things. I feel the most inspired to create when this happens – no matter if we go on an hour road trip out of town, or fly over seas to some exotic city. I just picked Montreal as an example because we honeymooned there and we love it.