Studio Visit With Illustrator Annalisa Oswald - Inside Art With Michael Rose

Studio Visit With Illustrator Annalisa Oswald - Inside Art With Michael Rose

 

Many artists keep a sketchbook, but few do it, like Providence illustrator Annalisa Oswald. In pages thick with paint, text, and design, she explores the connection between organic and abstract forms alongside the written word. Oswald is a multitalented illustrator, painter, educator, and designer who has a seemingly endless well of energy to create bright and colorful work in her local studio.

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A born midwesterner, Oswald earned her BFA from The Ohio State University. She originally majored in Scientific Illustration and later studied Painting and Graphic Design. An artist who has had a varied career in design, she has actively made and shown her own work in venues like Laconia Gallery in Boston, Nave Gallery in Somerville, Western Avenue Studios Gallery in Lowell, Blowtorch Studios in New Haven, and Yellow Studio in New York, among others. A Critic in RISD’s Illustration Department for 15 years, she has also been featured in many of RISD’s Faculty Exhibitions. Looking forward, her paintings are going to be featured in a group exhibition at Overlap Gallery in Newport later this spring.

 

 

Oswald has had a multilayered experience as an artist, designer, and professor. An early adopter of web-based art forms and technology in the 90s, she has designed everything from user interfaces to fabrics. In her day job she is Vice President of Design for an EdTech company. Describing how this shapes her practice, she says in part, “My life, my teaching, and my art have always been hybrid, so I'm comfortable with intersection and overlap between disciplines. I think there's a way that illustration can humanize a tech brand and make technology more approachable. I also think that illustration allows us to create imagined worlds. Anything can happen in a drawing! So, using illustrations in tech helps us communicate in a more nuanced way than, say, using stock photography. And the surface pattern work that I do also starts as a drawing before it becomes a digital repeating pattern, so there's some element of tech to that. I always thought that maybe I would end up as a book cover designer, and even though that hasn't happened yet, it still might!”

 

 

An educator in addition to an independent designer and illustrator, Oswald has been on staff in the RISD Illustration Department for a decade and a half. She previously taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Teaching courses covering topics ranging from interactive typography to social entrepreneurship and how to use design for good, she is enthusiastic about this work.

 

 

Asked about how teaching has informed her creative life, she answers, “The school community has given me insight into my own work, mostly around narrative, and exposure and access to a lot of different materials, but it was also at RISD that I started working with textiles and pattern design. Teaching at RISD has honestly been the most unexpected gift, and I am so grateful for the experience. I've been teaching part-time for nearly 15 years, which is wild. I wanted to attend RISD, but financially, it just wasn't an option for me, so being there as a faculty member is a very lucky thing. The students are wonderful. My work with them is a mix of illustration and graphic design, and I learn a lot from them - the way they see things, the way they're not limiting themselves or holding anything back, the way they approach color, narrative, pattern, also what they watch, read, and listen to. Students are curious, and I tend to lead my life with curiosity, letting it inform where I go and what I try next. I try to let them see that you don't have to be one thing or just do one thing as an artist and a maker.”

 

 

Oswald is a great example of how many different and closely knit things one artist can do, and sets an example for her students in making paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, and more.

 

Enthusiastic about living and working in Providence, Oswald has made friends and found a rich and deep community here. She says, “Living in the Valley means being surrounded by an incredible community of creative professionals—industrial designers, jewelry designers, ceramicists, illustrators, printmakers, painters, audio-visual designers, and filmmakers. You name it, and someone here is doing it. What makes this community special is the willingness of artists to share knowledge and support one another. My new studio at 50 Sims is a perfect example of that spirit of collaboration. And everyone I've met uses at least one hyphen to describe what they do - I'm an artist, illustrator, designer and educator, for example. And I love that.”

 

 

Learn more about Annalisa Oswald at www.annalisaoswald.com, or by following her on Instagram at @annalisadraws.