five minutes with: anna gleeson

We’ve started a new section on the secret squirrel blog called ‘five minutes with’ as a way to engage with creative types that we encounter and whose work we love! Stay tuned for more creatively inclined peeps over the next few months. First up though, we’d like to introduce you to illustrator extraordinaire Anna Gleeson!

Anna Gleeson is a hong kong based artist-maker-illustrator whose work we discovered after seeing her big paper earrings in Frankie magazine a few issues ago. We were so intrigued by her work that we decided to ask her a few more questions of our own.

What do you do?
 make things, draw a lot and sometimes design things. i make it up as i go along.
What would you like to do when you grow up?
so many things! i’d like to design textiles, theatre sets, jewellery, clothing. or maybe make ceramics or furniture or be an artisanal baker. i’d like to have a store front – a little bit studio, a little bit bookshop….maybe an espresso machine in the corner. i’d like to be a window dresser. or a really wacky make up artist.

where did you grow up? 
singleton, nsw. i rode a bike to the edge of town to look at fields, i climbed trees at dusk and saw mum below in a yellow kitchen light. i got stained hands from picking mulberries. and if we got enough mulberries mum made mulberry pie. pretty terrific looking back on it.

where do you live now? 
now i live in hong kong.

what do you miss about Australia?
family! and food! beautiful beaches right in the city. having a garden. hanging my laundry on a hills hoist – the smell of laundry in the outside air. compost.

draw us a picture of your favourite:

house plant: my favourite house plant is the happiest. i don’t know what kind of plant it is
outfit: this has been my favourite easy to wear dress over a few summers now. a big plaid, straight dress with pockets.
reading spot: i have an armchair that i bought here in hong kong; made using traditional upholstery techniques.

A few things you’re into right now:

photography on film
visits to the library / bookshop
south east asian textiles, batiks, ikats, palimpores
hong kong’s jungle, trees with big leaves.

what is your favourite hot weather drink?
iced chrysanthemum tea! its like drinking a field, a calming grassy taste.-

what are you working on at the moment? Can we see it online or in real life anytime soon?
i’m doing a lot of drawing. and working on a neighbourhood paper for wanchai, where i live and work. and making these things - i’m not sure what they are yet – they might be sculptures, they might be wearable. i’m taking a bit of space from the internet and not updating my website, blog or flickr too much lately – i guess because i’m working on things that i’m not sure what they are yet or what they might be. but i have a couple of editions of giant paper earrings available for sale at the recently launched edition x in melbourne. and the wanchai paper will launch in the new year, stay tuned.

To see more of Annas work take a look at her website here and read more of what she is up to on her blog here

Posted by Secret Squirrel on Tuesday November 22, 2011

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