Last week I had the interesting – and very enjoyable – experience of being interviewed for a podcast. The interviewer was John Middick, who runs ‘The Sharpened Artist’ a podcast mainly for anyone interested in coloured pencil art, he also provides online classes in coloured pencil technique.
His interest was initially in the letterbox collaborations I have been doing (see previous posts) but we quickly expanded into other areas of my art practice. John is a delightful interviewer, warm and friendly and interested in all aspects of art, so the interview was a great experience for me. The banner image above was what he made up to go on his website, using images that I sent through to him. This is the link to the podcast: https://sharpenedartist.com/podcast/257
My other foray into digital communication was to make a short video. The Australian Society of Miniature art now has a YouTube channel which I set up, and several members of the society have made short videos sharing various aspects of their own miniature art, from hand made books to painting on ivorine (a modern substitute for the traditional support of ivory), to printmaking techniques. The video I made was showing a miniature assemblage I made some time ago called ‘Hidden secrets of the geisha’. Video is the ideal medium for showing something like this as it has many parts hidden in little boxes and on shelves. The link to the channel is: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgmv6k9U2SD3ZH5OALArnPg/videos
anna warren portfolio 
Anna, what an exciting post! I listened to your podcast earlier and really enjoyed it, so insightful and easy to listen to. I just watched your video and loved it! It’s so nice to have you describe your piece and to see each book opened revealing their interiors. Your hand to book size relationship was helpful to really understand how small the books are. Thank you for these great insights in your post! A great morning treat for me!
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Thank you so much Cathe! I really enjoyed doing the interview for the podcast, the interviewer was very generous in letting me talk so much about all the various aspects of my work – it is somehow very liberating to do that, in normal conversation we simply don’t get the opportunity.
I had been thinking about making videos of my work for a while, and had kept away from it after some very dodgy attempts, but when we (the miniature society) realised we needed to communicate the miniatures to as many people as possible, since our exhibitions were either cancelled or behind temporarily closed doors, I thought I would try again. You are absolutely right that the hand-to-book gives a good idea of the size of the work, something that is much harder to convey from a still image.
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How interesting! The interviewer was really generous in the way he allowed you talk about all of your art and I learned a lot about your background. I also worked in publishing for many years. I just watched the YouTube video and subscribed to the channel.
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He was very generous Nancy – I never realised I talked so much! But given the opportunity, off I went! Hope you enjoy al the videos. Some are more professional than others, but they give a good insight into miniature work.
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Whoo hoo .. in a dash popping onto WP .. I’ll be back in the morning Anna ! REALLY Looking forward to this and clicking on your links 🙂
x Poppy
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I enjoyed a leisurely coffee awhile ago Anna , I think this was one of the VERY rare times I’ve listened all the way through a podcast without ever thinking I’ll hit the stop button 🙂
A lovely relaxed and illuminating interview for sure .You covered such a lot of ground between the 2 of you with references from your Graphic Design background to Collaborations, Exhibitions and your actual drawing processes /materials . It’s not all plain sailing with any Art is it, and with one or 2 home truths about the creative journey you’ve reminded me to not give up 🙂
Loved peeking into your’ miniature assemblage’ in the video, opening the fan there at the end was the icing on the cake . Beautiful !
x Poppy
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Thanks Poppy, I’m so glad you stayed the journey! It was quite long, but the beauty of podcasts is that you can be doing something else at the same time as listening, in the car or ironing, mindless activities! It was a really enjoyable exercise, an opportunity to really explain my processes. I will attempt to do more of the videos, they do give a different kind of insight I think. Thanks you so much! xx
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Hello Anna, I didn’t know about your latest blog post. Somehow I must have missed it on FB. Of course you know I loved listening to the podcast. It was enlightening. Even though I think we know one another very well, I still managed to learn new things from listening. John is such a good interviewer – he really listens and therefore the interaction between you was so engaging. His excitement was palpable – someone different from the usual photorealist CP artists to learn about.
The video is very watchable – in the way that it is fascinating to watch family members open their Christmas presents. What is going to be inside? I found the geisha’s fan particularly breathtaking in its delicacy. But those landscape (to me) books are also irresistible. The video gives the viewer such a thorough look at your art work with all its little secrets.
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Well, the podcast is all down to you Julie – if you hadn’t put John on to me (initially on the basis of the letterbox collaboration) he would never have found me! I hope he did find it interesting, my work, as you say, is very different from the generally accepted photorealism that is used by many coloured pencil artists. He did genuinely seem interested, and was so open to letting me talk about a range of different areas. When I finished the interview I was on quite a high!
I believe it was you who gave me the title for the miniature assemblage too – I made it several years ago, but it seemed a good candidate for opening up in a video, so I’m delighted you enjoyed it. I think I will make more videos …
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Hi Anna,
I came across your website via the sharpened artist podcast. I enjoyed your interview very much. I like how you combine printmaking into your artworks. I looked at your miniature works and I think it is fantastic ! I just followed you on Instagram as I find your artwork to be super creative. Being an artist myself, I like combining my colored pencil artworks with other mediums and I totally enjoyed your podcast. Thanks for sharing your creative art process.
Best
Jay
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Hi Jay – I’m delighted you enjoyed the interview, I enjoyed doing it, John was a great guy, very open and friendly. One thing I do a lot is experimenting within different media for my artworks, there is always something new and interesting to do. I find working into prints gives me a really good starting point, and then I can take the imagery off in different and unexpected directions.
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