Drawing her own world

In the back corner of A.P. Psychology, senior Anna Carmolli sits hunched with a pencil in her hand and her nose in a sketch book. She’s writing a diary. But it’s not your typical ‘pour your heart out’ one with a special little key. It’s daily happenings.
It’s the ladybug that scuttled across the page.
It’s a self portrait of her falling on the ice.
It’s a cat infestation.
It’s her mind, her inspiration.
It’s, as she calls it, her process book.
Carmolli creates her own world in the pages of her journal. She writes in it daily and stashes it away after she moves on to the next notebook, later to be found as a distraction while cleaning her room littered with paintings in progress.
Her infatuation with drawing budded from her mother, an artist.
“I don’t remember ever not being into art” Carmolli said.
The fire was fueled by the book series, “Akiko on the Planet Smoo” by Mark Crilley. She started reading the childrens novels in fourth grade, taking note of and admiring the illustrations. When she was fourteen, Crilley came to Grand Valley State University and she couldn’t pass up seeing him. So she braved the world of cosplayers that flooded Allendale and met the man who had helped her get into art.
“I was one of the weird kids who liked anime,” Carmolli said, “I learned to draw them and now I try to just do my own thing.”
Since then, she has moved from drawing anime, to people and finally grown into truly her own artist. Her daily journals depict how she’s feeling, what she needs to get done, projects she has started and jobs she has done for people.
“I get the little things out so I can actually do something good,” Carmolli said.
But those little things can sometimes inspire the good things, such as a series of cyclops water color paintings that poke out from the pages. They all started with a little doodle.
Carmolli’s crowned jewel, however, is something more intense than a one eyed water color. Her multimedia piece about transgender youth is representing the Careerline Tech Center in the West Michigan Student Showcase. (Results of showcase were not available at the time of publication, check bucsblade.com to see how her piece placed). With the ink and water color art based off of the transgender flag, she hopes to bring attention to social inequality; a passion of hers.
Between the artists she follows online, magazine clippings cluttering her wall and the real life references she uses, Carmolli has found her style and career. Currently attending the tech center for graphic design, she hopes to continue on in the field and also do illustration jobs for clients on the side.  “Alot of people describe me as unique which is really just a nice way of saying weird but you know what, that’s ok,” Carmolli said,  ”whatever, I’m wearing cactuses, its fine.”