Snapshot:

PAST: At age eight, Anna had an illustration published in Napier’s Daily

Telegraph newspaper. She muses that perhaps the thrill of seeing her work in print led her to pursue a career as a satirical illustrator and cartoonist. Anna has penned (literally, with an old-fashioned dip pen) her pictorial puns for The New

York Times, Wall Street

Journal, The Australian,

Time, and most well-read publications within New Zealand, including

NZ Life & Leisure (see Well & Good, page 53). She is a member of The Turnbull Library Cartoon Advisory Group, which is finding inventive ways to enhance and widen the cartoon archive collection and to encourage and support young comic artists. She is a five-time winner of the Qantas/Canon Media Awards for Best Editorial Artist.

PRESENT: Describing herself as a bit of a restless spirit and an intrepid adventurer, Anna spent months in India with local embroiderers, woodblock carvers and printers. The work culminated in a large collection of abstract embroideries that have been exhibited in three New Zealand public galleries. Now, the embroideries and woodblock prints will be exhibited and offered for sale at the Railway Street Studios in Auckland’s Newmarket from 9 to 28 September. In between longing for more adventures, working with intellectually challenged adults, and curating shows of their paintings and sculptures, Anna has also created a book called Dear Virus: A Cartoonist

Chronicles Love and Life in the Time of Covid. She describes it as “observations on the curious and wonder-filled time of our first lockdown”. FUTURE: These days, in a house on the edge of the Manukau Harbour, Anna spends time in her home studio creating cartoon books, sculptural ceramics and still draws for publications. She shares her house with her partner, dog, and two children (sometimes). annacrichton.com