Anna grew up a timid child of a roving Australian geologist father and an intrepid Texan mother. The wandering life of an expatriate child drove most of the shyness (almost) out of her while moving between Texas, Tunisia, Egypt and the U.K. As an adult, she received a degree in Painting & Drawing and International Studies from the University of Washington in Seattle in 2011. Since then, her itchy feet have taken her to live in China, Australia, and most recently New Zealand. While in beautiful Central South Island, Anna had the privilege of illustrating promotional postcards and posters for award winning local tourism operator Earth & Sky Ltd (now called Dark Sky Project).
At the end of 2016, Anna returned to Austin, Texas where she enjoys her day job working for McDonald Observatory at The University of Texas at Austin.
She joined the local Austin chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). In 2019 she won the 2019 Emerging Voices Illustrator Mentorship Award and the chance to work with author-illustrator, Vanessa Roeder. In 2020, she received an honor award for her portfolio as part of the Austin chapter’s portfolio showcase competition.
In 2022-2023, Anna worked as a freelance contractor for MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, conducting rigorous studies of programs and policies that affect people with low incomes. She provided illustrations for seven publications highlighting a range of subject matter including pre-K pedagogy, families incorporating incarcerated parents into children’s lives, and fatherhood programs.
In this period, she also freelanced for Wonders & Worries to illustrate their first picture book about Max, a young child who’s dad is diagnosed with cancer. The end product will hopefully help child life specialists and guardians who work with children who are experiencing a situation like Max’s.
Since 2023, she has been throwing herself back into printmaking – a medium she abandoned after high school because it seemed like it was too expensive and relied on too much equipment. It might by partly true – thank god for studio rental and community printshops! She’s found a home at the Austin Book Arts Center’s community printshop where she tries to play with what is possible to create with letterpress processes.