Conversations with AnnMarie Young

Today we’d like to introduce you to AnnMarie Young.

Hi AnnMarie, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My story begins here in Austin; I was born and raised off of Anderson Mill and Parmer Lane. I lived in the same house on the same street all through my childhood and ended up staying in the city to go to the University of Texas for college. I just recently graduated in May of this year with my Bachelors in Fine Arts with an emphasis in painting. Just like any other college student there were times where I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my future and I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my degree. My sophomore year at UT I ended up getting an internship with a company called ArtStartArt which was an online arts marketplace platform designed specifically to help college art students sell their art. As a college art student there couldn’t have been a better job for me at this period in my life. I excelled as an intern and as an artist on the site. I began selling paintings faster than I could produce them to people all around the country. By the time I was a junior I even had a few collectors and commission requests. This is when I began to take my future career as an artist seriously. I made the mindset shift to pursue a career as a full time artist intentionally and passionately. I started posting regularly on social media, gained a small following, and created a website for myself. The possibilities for what I could do as an artist broadened dramatically. In July 2020 I went on a one month solo trip to Iceland where I hand-painted 50 watercolor postcards of Icelandic scenery. This project ended up being a huge success which is what laid the foundation for my most recent adventure in Alaska.

As mentioned previously, I graduated from the University of Texas on May 22nd of this year. On May 23rd I was on a flight to central Alaska to come live in a remote cabin in the woods outside of Fairbanks. My project for the summer is to paint 100 Alaskan inspired postcards which have all already been pre-ordered on my website with the help of social media marketing. That’s my story so far! From Austin to Alaska I have carried my paint brushes and palette the whole way.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I actually went into college thinking I was going to graduate as an officer in the Air Force through their ROTC program. That had been my goal all through high school, but five weeks into classes at UT I had a complete breakdown about what I wanted to do with my life. I dropped my Air Force classes and decided to focus on my art, but things didn’t get better immediately. It took some time for me to find my sense of purpose back. More times than not I was questioning if I had made the wrong decision or if my art degree was a waste of time and money. It wasn’t until I consciously made the decision that I wanted to be an artist after I graduated that things started going better than I ever could have imagined. Now I am completely content in my decision and there are no doubts in my mind that this is what I am meant to be doing.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’ve recently been calling myself a traveling landscape painter, but the fun thing about being an artist is that I get to make up my own job title. I’ve specialized in landscape painting for the past three years working mostly in oil paint and watercolor. When I am back home at my studio in Austin I work with oils on large canvases or wood panels, but while I am traveling I work with watercolor and postcard-size paper.

Before I left for Alaska my senior thesis paintings were on display at the Visual Arts Center on UT campus. My paintings featured three Texas State Parks: Pedernales Falls, Palo Duro Canyon, and Enchanted Rock State Park. The idea behind them was to bring attention to these incredible places in Texas that we as residents don’t seem to value or cherish enough. I am a big proponent of public land and a frequent visitor of Texas State Parks, so it felt appropriate to stay connected to my Texas roots for my final paintings in art school.

Currently I am in the middle of my Alaskan postcard project. I have painted 65/100 postcards that I have to get done by the end of the summer. They are being sent all over the world as I go. I post about them frequently to my Instagram if you are interested in seeing the works in progress.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was always the artsy kid in class, the go-to-girl when the group needed someone to draw on the poster board for a project. When I was in first grade my art teacher submitted one of my drawings to a district competition where it ended up winning in its category. The drawing advanced to state-level where I won again and it was hung in Governor Rick Perry’s office for an entire year. That is always a fun story to tell when people ask if I was always artistic. Other than being artistic I was very shy! I had one childhood best friend growing up and we lived down the street from each other. I was never any good at sports, dancing, singing, playing instruments, etc. My only talent was art!

Contact Info:

• Email: annmyoung.austin@gmail.com
• Website: annmarieyoung.com
• Instagram: annmyoung.arts

Image Credits
Katherine Deveise