On Finding Your Own Way, with Anna Koeferl

What's your name and where are you from?

Anna Koeferl, from New Orleans!

How long have you been making prints, illustrating, making art, etc?

Since high school — I went to NOCCA for Visual Arts and then the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), where I studied painting and graphic design. I graduated about a year and a half ago and have been making work in New Orleans since.

How did you get started?

NOCCA! It's a really great school — I'm working there now as the in-house graphic designer. It's kind of crazy to be back, but working on the other side of things makes me realize just how special of a place it is.

What is your favorite medium, technique, or platform for sharing your work?

Collage is very central to how I draw, print, and paint. Cutting out shapes and textures from paper and arranging them together makes more of a surprising outcome for me than if I were to just draw them. When I do draw, I try to imitate the style of using paper and scissors. The whole process feels not too worked over even though maybe it has been.

At the moment I'm enjoying scanning textures made with Sumi ink and then arranging them on photoshop. Working this way makes choosing color combinations a lot easier. If I'm at a loss for a shape or texture, I often reuse my old paintings and drawings by cutting them up, adding to them, or pasting them together. Sometimes its nice when you're not an expert because you just find your own way of making things, which might be an off or incorrect way, but the outcome can be pretty interesting. I think paper will most likely always be my favorite medium because of its versatility.

And Instagram is my favorite platform for sharing my work.

Follow along with Anna's work on Instagram.