Take Five with Artist-in-Residence Anastasia Sierra

What’s your earliest or most treasured memory of making art?
I’ll talk about the most treasured one. As a new mother, I felt quite conflicted about how to be a photographer and a mom at the same time. I wanted both, but each seemed to cancel the other out. Up until then I had mostly worked on commissions and isolated portrait projects, and that became logistically difficult with a baby. So I started making pictures of us at home, just to make something. And then I realized I could use photography to talk about the very experiences that were preventing me from doing it.

The particular moment happened early in the morning, when the days were long. I walked into the living room sleepy and grumpy – my toddler had woken me up – and there he was in the sunlight, with his golden hair, like a deity. Our messy living room was transformed by the early morning light, and the scene reminded me of a Renaissance painting. All of a sudden my house, my life, everything around me seemed full of possibility for making art.

It had taken me such a long time to find a meaningful subject for my work, and that moment felt like a revelation of what I wanted to photograph, how, and why.

What most excites you about your current projects or portfolio?
This month I got back to working on Swimming Towards the Sun, a project I started three years ago but had to pause while I was finishing my MFA. The project is set at Walden Pond, and being so close to it has been amazing. I am still discovering what the work is about, which is part of what excites me. It began with questions of freedom, the body, and thriving in discomfort, but the new photographs are stranger, with elements of fear and something primal.

Who do you admire who is currently working in your field?
I would need several pages to answer this! Here’s a very abbreviated list, in no particular order: Abelardo Morell, for the sense of wonder and magic in his practice; Taryn Simon, for following an idea all the way through, in all directions; Jack Davison, for strangeness, playfulness, and the most amazing photographs of pumpkins;  Ana Casas Broda, for honesty; and Sophie Calle, for shamelessness.

What are you most looking forward to experiencing or accomplishing during your Umbrella Arts residency?
One of my goals is to expand my body of work Swimming Towards the Sun. I also have a more developed project, The Witching Hour, a surreal take on motherhood and family bonds. I see both projects as books, and this is the truly challenging part for me.

The image-making has always been easy for me: it’s fun, physical, and there is usually some kind of adventure involved. I love collaborating, and making the pictures is incredibly energizing. Sifting through hundreds of images and deciding what they say, how to sequence them, how that sequence creates meaning – and whether I’m on board with that meaning – is much harder. I tend to put that part off.

It’s important to finish things, though, and strangely, that’s also what I’m looking forward to most. We have such a lovely studio space, and I can’t think of a better place to work through this. I’m also very excited by the work the other artists in our cohort are making and would love to see what kinds of collaborations might emerge.

And lastly, I’d love to do something fun and noncommittal. I’ve started shooting more black-and-white film. My work relies so much on color, and on being able to take hundreds of pictures at a time. When I shoot film, I feel like I’m someone else, and it’s a good feeling.

What’s your philosophy as a teacher of and/or ambassador for your art form?
I see teaching as part of my creative practice. Curiosity, openness, persistence, and a kind of obsession are qualities I hope to help students develop. Obviously, technical skills and knowledge of the field are important, but if I had to pick one thing, it would be finding and feeding the obsession that makes you jump out of bed in the morning, that makes you return to the same place or question and keep looking for more.

Everyone has something to say. Finding a way to express it that feels true to you and connects with others can take time, so a lot of it is about having the motivation and persistence to keep going, while staying open to change and growth. Not stopping.