Anya Keeley

I saw Anya's work at Origins craft fair in London in September and immediately fell in love with it. It is very similar to what i am trying to achieve in my negotiated brief and is very inspirational . I love the whimsical feel and the mix of old and new materials . Anya is a self confessed collected of odds and ends and she is interesting to me beause of her use of collage .

I emailed Anya with some questions about her work, this is her response :


Hello Cath,

Thankyou, I'm glad you find my work so inspiring! You're right I don't have a huge amount of time at the moment, as I get busy this time of year, but I have answered your questions below. I'm afraid they're short answers but I hope they help.

Who or what inspires you to create your art?
My inspiration comes from all sorts of sources.
People who inspire me: Tim Burton (particularly his older films), Julie Arkell (fantastic fictional creatures), Joseph Cornell (assemblages), Keith LoBue (mixed media jewellery).
Places that inspire me: the Natural History Museum, Prague (for the fairytale architecture), the Pitt Rivers Museum Oxford.
Other inspiration: fairytales, nursery rhymes, taxidermy.

How do you fund your work?
I have a full time job, I'm a manager of a pub, which pays the bills regularly. At the moment my self employment income just funds the business, enabling me to buy more materials and do craft fairs.

How and where did you first exhibit your work?
I set my business up 7 years ago, several years after finishing college, helped by a loan from the Prince's Trust. A jeweller friend of mine was involved with Alloy, the Hereford Jewellers Guild, and suggested I should apply to be a member. My first exhibition was with the group on a touring exhibition.

Are you making a living full time ?
No. My business still doesn't make enough for me to pay myself wages.

How important is narrative in your work?
Very important. Quite often a snippet of a sentence will inspire the piece I eventually make.

How easy is it to find materials for your art?
The trend for thrift and recycling over the last few years has started to make it harder to find materials, junk shops are selling items as antiques which has pushed the price up and more students are collecting items to use in their own work. I've also found that alot of charity shops will now only sell 'high quality' goods, which is a shame as I prefer the old, battered and broken bric-a-brac more.

I hope this has helped.

Regards
Anya



http://www.anyakeeley.com/

Thanks so much Anya !