Today, we’d like to introduce you to Paige (Annabelle) Turner.
Hi Paige, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Ever since I was little, I have been drawing, and I was very easy to entertain as long as there was a pencil and paper nearby. I got my animation degree and did freelance work for the next ten years, doing a bit of everything, including wall-sized murals for office interiors, film clips for bands, and some of the more interesting-to-look-at commercials on TV.
My dream is to run my own studio and direct my own films, and I figure the best way to do that is to know what everyone’s job is. If not as well as an industry expert would, then enough to get the job done and understand the challenges you face when you want to bring your vision to life. Even with zero budget, you can push for maximum production value within your means.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The world is not cut out for bohemian creatives who like to dream their way through life, making decisions this way and that about whether they should pick something up or put it down. The number one struggle is always money, far more than your reputation or ability to draw.
No matter where you’re at, putting food on the table and keeping the lights on is hard, but money isn’t everything. Ralph Bakshi famously once told an animation student at a convention that he didn’t think kids these days should be worried that their ideas were going to get picked up by some producer. They should “starve for a year” and make it themselves, and as much as I hate to admit it, it’s kind of my ethos now – you can stand to starve for a year if there will be a banquet at the end and I’ve been there many times.
People talk like there’s no tomorrow, but any successful artist knows that being a successful artist is more of a state of mind than some measurable metric. If you’re surviving and you love what you do, keep going. If not, maybe find something that resonates with you.
Thanks. What else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
One thing that sets my work apart from others is the variety, both in subject matter and medium. I cycle through many mediums, particularly digital and traditional painting, inks and markers, animation of all kinds, puppetry, and doll-making.
Obviously, I’m not afraid to try something new. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I always wanted to be a director of animations and films, and when you “start out practicing that yourself,” you kind of have to do EVERYTHING.
Growing up, I consumed a large amount of TV, movies, and music and started picking out patterns in them very quickly across times and places – some things are different due to culture, others appear to be universals, and I like exploring and exploiting those cultural signals in my artwork. I also get a lot of enjoyment out of something called “culture jamming,” which, in a simplified sense, means shaking up someone’s status quo of an accepted cultural icon.
For example, if you draw a popular monster character having the time of their lives at a dance club in heels and makeup, some people will react with fury, others will feel ‘seen,’ whatever that means – either way, you weren’t going to see them like this before I did that to them, to me that’s the power of art.
People always imprint on each other, and they never realize that they’re being imprinted on. Artists have a better understanding of this equation because winning an audience of all kinds requires “talking” to them, if not literally, then intellectually. It’s a give-and-take.
It’s not always about you. If anything, I’m trying to think more of how my work can access my community and help them rather than the other way around; ironically, this gets you more traffic and business.
How do you think about luck?
I have to admit I’m suspicious of luck. Luck can go south; if you’re not prepared, there goes your opportunity. Focusing on preparation and stick-to-it-edness (even when it sucks) was what evolved my art career to its current point. ‘Bad Luck’ did its best to destroy it.
Have you noticed that a lot of really successful people point out they wouldn’t have traded their failures and setbacks for the world? It seems so condescending when you hear them say that, but it makes you wonder how the attitude could possibly be connected to success, let alone frequently. The short answer is that a really easy ride can make you weak and not stomach the blow when it finally comes – that was the first twenty years of my life.
A life of hardship lived through with aplomb, however, will strengthen you against the very fires of hell if that’s what it takes to achieve your goals. Luck’s got nothing to do with it, but if you find yourself in the midst of a great opportunity, do think about the cost of letting it go by because you weren’t prepared.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @ice_age_paige
