Meet Anna Granholm

We recently connected with Anna Granholm and have shared our conversation below.

Anna, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

I learned to become more resilient as I go through failure. Not everything I do or create will become something great. I’ve learned that doing more, creating more, and not giving up on my passions will eventually make my dreams a reality. As they say in Disney, “just keep swimming.”

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Professionally, I’m focused on my ability to be an educator during the school year, but that does not mean I stop being an artist. Through my teaching I like to emphasize the part of being creative and having originality. Whether it be through writing, projects, or through presentation.

As of now, I’ve helped new authors on the illustration of new books. Such as “The Garden Ghost” by Patrick Eichers and “I Will Remember For You” by Collette Pederson. I am willing to help with any project I am offered regardless of the expectations, I see it as a new opportunity to help my abilities grow.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

One quality I must have for both being an artist and educator is flexibility. As an educator I must have the ability to reteach and readjust my teaching to help all my students. As an illustrator I must be able to keep with the deadline while also being able to make changes on the spot.

Another quality that is important is creativity. In which I must find creative ways to teach in order to keep engagement, but also to reach deadlines and create appeal in the books artwork.

The last quality that helps in both these careers is readiness. I must be ready to take on new challenges. As well as the ability to handle stress under pressure.

This is developed by continuous practice and finding loop holes and strategies that help me complete challenging tasks.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

In the future I’d love to be able to have a line of books that I myself have written and illustrated to educate the youth on real-world issues and appropriate ways of handling or approaching stress. Especially, with pre-teens to teens I want to be able to provide Social Emotional Learning through various books that aren’t seen as childish. A book that looks worth picking up.

I would love if there was a publishing company or business that would be willing to help me accomplish this goal.

Image Credits

Grand Rapids Reif Performing Center
Drury Lane Books in Grand Marais