Supporting Vancouver Artists & Non-profits: Inkwell x Andrea Armstrong x Big Sisters Lower Mainland
For the months of September and October, Inkwell Cards is partnering with a local Vancouver artist to create special edition greeting cards. As a Vancouver brand that loves supporting our local non-profits and female entrepreneurs, 10% of the proceeds of this partnership will be donated with Big Sisters Lower Mainland.
Andrea Armstrong is an artist based in Vancouver, BC, with roots in rural Indonesia, small-town Manitoba, and metropolitan Singapore. She specializes in character-driven art, in the form of traditional portraiture, children’s book illustration, and more recently animation. She graduated from Capilano University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Communication.
As a member of the Open Book Art Collective, she collaborates with fellow artists to create visual work that responds to the written word. Her recent animation “Snow Day” was selected for the Eastside Culture Crawl’s Moving Art exhibition in the fall of 2020. She is currently illustrating her first trade picture book with Kids Can Press.
Q&A with Andrea
When did you realize you were an artist?
I studied Fine Art and Visual Communication in my twenties, though it took me a long time to feel confident enough to call myself an artist! I always wanted to do this though, since my mid-teenage years. I currently make a living doing a variety of projects in illustration, fine art, graphic design and animation, so sometimes my job title fluctuates still.
What inspires you and your art?
I'm inspired by people. I love how unique we are as individuals. My neighbours, my niece and nephew, books, personal experiences: these are the most frequent sources of inspiration.
How does art impact your life?
Making art is so connected to all the areas of my life. It's connected me to other artists who have become my closest friends. It is the way I generate income. It is also what I do for enjoyment. It is what I love to learn about. Art is my home: literally, since I work from home, and symbolically, since it is where I have found the truest sense of my place in the world.
What advice to you have for younger artists who are just starting?
Make what you love to make. A love for drawing will keep a person drawing, and that is the most important thing. To keep drawing. Learning skills and challenging techniques will come later if you choose to pursue a visual arts career. But until then, draw what you love to draw, in the style that comes naturally to you.
