Meet Anna Sidana

We were lucky to catch up with Anna Sidana recently and have shared our conversation below.

Anna, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

My elementary school motto – Courage is Destiny, has served me well throughout life. It became my inner voice that nudged me to take the leap whenever I had any hesitations. By taking risks in life, I learned to deal with failures and successes. I realized that if I had not taken some steps I would not be where I am today. For example, I recently took a big risk in leaving a successful marketing career to go back to school for a master’s degree in art. As a result of that today, I am a full-time visual artist and have created a life that gives me joy every day. There was plenty of hard work, bumps, and self-doubt, but I stayed true to myself in my art practice and committed to this path with a passion. Becoming a practicing artist has given my confidence and self-esteem a big boost, and I have never looked back.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

After raising my two wonderful children and a 25+ year career in technology marketing I was ready for a change. However, making a change into the arts was a non-trivial decision that came with its own unique challenges. The career path for an artist does not have a handbook. The industry is opaque, and every artist must go on a personal journey of discovery. I decided the best way for me to tackle this was to learn about the industry first which led to a fundamental decision I had to make early on. I had to decide if I wanted to be a facilitator for artists or an artist and creator of art. Once I decided that I wanted to be an artist, I felt that I had a lot to learn and wanted to be the best I could be. This led to the decision to go back to school to start learning from the ground up. It was uncomfortable, immediate and required full immersion. However, I was surrounded by like-minded people and in a school setting I was able to make mistakes and experiment freely. While the learning curve was steep, school accelerated my career. Eventually discovering and staying focused on my authentic voice became one of most important factors for my success and inspiration.
My art practice explores an emotional connection with complex family histories shaped by childhood memories and the dilution of one’s identity. Art has been a means of coming to terms with my childhood and deciphering my challenging yet inspiring Indian culture. As an immigrant, I feel a kinship with several cultures simultaneously – at times, feeling very much at home and at other times quite unsettled.
I take a contemporary twist on landscape painting, leveraging childhood memories of pomegranates, mangoes and playing in cotton fields as a focal point in the painting. Through symbolism and abstraction, I create fantastical landscapes that are immersive, visceral, and emotional. My medium is large-scale oil on canvas.
I feel fortunate to have been featured twice at the de Young Museum of San Francisco, at the 2023 Architectural Biennale in Venice, the Marin MOCA, the Diego Rivera Gallery, and at Times Square, New York. I was invited to participate in the London Art Biennale, the Louisiana Biennial, and several artist residencies.
I am also excited to share that I will be having a solo show soon at the Pamela Walsh Gallery in Palo Alto in September this year.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Commitment – making art my primary focus was harder than I had imagined but it has paid off well. Learning to eliminate the noise and staying laser focused on my practice took sacrifice, dedication and time. However, in the end, it became my happy place where I only had to think about my art. It was meditative, frustrating, enriching and many other emotions all at once. But it has all been worth it. For anyone who is embarking on a new path I would recommend eliminating as many distractions as possible. Stop multi-tasking and focus on your journey.
Showing up – getting to the studio every day was more than a routine. I needed to build that muscle and critical eye to get into a creative mindset and space, over and over again. Even though at times I felt that I was not getting anywhere, I would stumble upon new techniques, happy accidents and find deeper meaning in my work. Sometimes one does not need to be a genius, just consistently hardworking.
Learning from others – I read the lives of many artists and found inspiration from their lives. Their stories also helped me find my own inspiration. And I was not shy to ask for help. Listening and talking to other artists and hearing about their journey was helpful in learning how to navigate my own path as I morphed from a technology executive to an artist and painter.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

There are several books that helped me find my way. To name a few – Biography of Mark Rothko. Irving Stone’s Lust for Life based on Van Gogh’s life, several books by Rebecca Solnit, Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan, and so so many others.
These books helped me determine what was important for me and why. They helped me shed my business world, clear my head and think profoundly about life. These books helped me get in touch with my emotions which in turn helped me find my purpose in art. I realized that no matter the outcome, I had to paint to breathe. That being an artist was a way of life, not a goal to pursue for a desired result.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.annasidana.com
• Instagram: @annasidana
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annasidanasart
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annasidana/

Image Credits

n/a