Today we’d like to introduce you to Anya Bosworth.
Anya, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I was raised in Keller TX, and since I was young, I have always been drawn to the arts. I delved into many visual art forms in school and I could never quite tie down what specific art I wanted to pursue. All I knew was I wanted to be an artist who could support myself financially with my work.
Around my junior year of high school, after being hit with inspiration at an antique store, I sculpted a furry fox with human hands to sit as a little friend and guardian watching over my room, and that was the whole of it. I never intended this “room guardian” to be anything more than my own personal art.
I graduated high school and applied to a bunch of art schools. Unfortunately, as many of us know, even with scholarships, art school was still ungodly expensive. So, I decided to take some time to work and contemplate my future. During this time, more and more friends and family asked me for a little room guardian of their own. I experimented with different methods of making them and ended up finding an efficient and uniform way of sculpting them with chicken wire. I figured I might as well try to sell them on Etsy to make some extra money.
Most of my listings were custom orders and I gradually got overwhelmed with sales. It got to the point where I had to cut off my orders and take my listings off Etsy to catch up. My day job started feeling like a side job when I realized I could make more money if I used the time I was at my job to work on room guardians. In 2014 a little over two years after I first opened my etsy store, I quit my job to make room guardians for a living, and I’ve been doing so ever since.
In 2016, one of my early room guardians (The Persian Cat Room Guardian) that had long since left my mind suddenly resurfaced as an internet meme and went viral. I initially felt a little violated and angry that my image was used without permission without crediting me, and I began asking for credit wherever I could. I got a huge influx of interest in Persian cat room guardian remakes. The original was given to someone long before it became a meme, but I held off on recreating it for a long time. In retrospect, after all the initial chaos, I am honored to have my goofy cat featured in a famous meme. It’s a great conversation starter. I have since loosened up to the demand of the public, and I borrowed the original cat back to create some remakes using a mold of its face. If I could mass produce the cat, I would have been able to profit off it much more than I did. Since I never had any problem selling any of my room guardians, I didn’t need any more demand for a product, I needed more product. But I do make recreations when I can, and I have opened a RedBubble shop with some meme merchandise.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
It’s always so hard for me to describe my room guardians without pictures to people. They aren’t your typical sculpture or your typical doll. They lie in a sort of limbo world of “poseable animal art dolls” which most people have no idea exists. I didn’t even know this niche world existed until I had to choose a category for my work on Deviantart. Room guardians are my own special brand of these art dolls however. I put a unique crystal heart in the chest of every one, so they all have a different energy.
Unlike many animal art dolls, room guardians are not plush. Each room guardian starts with a chicken wire armature. I sculpt it into the shape I want and strengthen it with layers of aluminum foil. The arms, neck and tail have a fully poseable armature inside so they can be placed in different positions. I sculpt the head, arms, and feet with oven bake polymer clay, and sometimes use resin for more durable features. Then I paint and seal it. I choose from my selection of faux fur for the body and sew it over the armature. Then I trim the fur for a more natural stream lined shape.
I’ve always been inspired by the idea of spirits and unseen beings that affect our physical world, and the room guardian concept is a manifestation of that. Room Guardians are little critters that often look like a familiar creature like a fox or rabbit, but there’s something about them that’s not quite full animal, something more spiritual. They are creatures that one can easily imagine living amongst us but have enough pieces of fantasy to remain mysterious and magical. Of course, if you don’t subscribe to a spiritual belief of some sort, room guardians are just interesting peculiar art, but for those of us that do, or are just unsure for that matter, they are a little reminder that a healthy sense of wonder can make the most ordinary of things a little more exciting.
Although room guardians are my major art form, I actively work in other mediums such as, painting, chalk, ink, and costumery. Most of my work is closely tied with themes of nature and spirituality as well.
How do you think about success, as an artist, and what do quality do you feel is most helpful?
I definitely have to make an effort to connect with other local artists since I work at home, and I don’t have any college connections. I’m just recently making working on having more of a local presence since I put most of my efforts my online presence until now.
Facebook is one of the best tools for finding local community events. There are tons of location specific art and music groups you can join. When you find an event, you want to go to, you’ll meet many other like-minded people you can connect with and build off of even more. I find and follow local artists whenever I can so I can grow connections, and more easily discover and coordinate events. I believe it’s important to take advantage of the convenient “shallow” connections of social media to boost strong physical connections with a community.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I sell my room guardians almost exclusively online, but I occasionally make an appearance at local events and shows with my other work. The best way to keep track of what I’m doing is following me on any one of my social media platforms and/or joining my email list for updates on new work.
I just recently joined Ko-fi, for anyone who wants to buy me a coffee. I’m planning on streaming some of my process in the near future with my Ko-fi support. www.ko-fi.com/anyaboz. I sell Persian cat merch on my Redbubble www.redbubble.com/people/anyaboz
Contact Info:
- Website: www.anyabozartist.com
- Email: artist.anyaboz@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/anyaobz
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/anyabozartist
- Other: www.anyaboz.tumblr.com
Image Credit:
Anya Boz
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