It’s been one of my dreams to paint murals. And in 2018 I had the pleasure of painting two murals. One in Chiang Mai, Thailand at the artist residency MaiSpace that I attended, and the second was at Metropolink Urban Art Festival here in Heidelberg Germany in the summer. I love painting large scale paintings on canvas, so I was so excited to bring my painting to walls. Metropolink has been a wonderful addition to Heidelberg, bringing beautiful art to the public all around town.

I love the large scale, the challenge. Translating my style and technique into vertical and large work is a fun and rewarding undertaking. I love making work of different sizes (scales). Usually I begin paintings with them lying horizontally on the floor, using very fluid paints and water, but I had to adjust my style to work on vertical walls.

In 2018, Metropolink took over one street in a former US army barracks here in Heidelberg. The homes have been abandoned for 5 years and have become overgrown and we artists occupied the street and brought it to life for a week of art and music. I was asked to paint the interior of an officer’s garage.

Metropolink recently published this catalogue of the last two years of festivals. It is avaiable locally at several cafes in heidelberg and it can be purchased by contacting orga@metropolink-festival.de. The zine is a large A3 size with full page spreads of artist portraits and photographs of the murals that were painted. A beautiful portrait of me was taken in the catalogue. You can see all my wrinkles and freckles, it was taken on one of the hottest days of the year but it captured me really well.

This coming year’s Metropolink Urban Art Festival goes from Jul 5 - Jul 21.

Mark your calendars. It will be another wonderful year!

Thanks for reading lovelies,

Anna (Olive Green Anna)

Can I really call myself an artist? It's a scary thing to say. I haven’t made art seriously ever in my life. Since studying art, I have had times of abundance in the art-making realm, but it hasn't been consistent. I struggle to even call myself an artist. I am and have been an art teacher now for 4 years, but am I really an artist? 

Growing up I created paintings, collages, art journals, but I never thought I was any good. Talent wasn’t really evident in my hands. I couldn’t draw realistically. I wasn’t one of those girls that could draw horses impeccably. It wasn't until my second year of uni that I learned to draw.

There is just so much self doubt as an artist. Is my work good enough? Will anyone want to buy it? What do I want to create? I will never be as good as the masters. It’s crippling at times to even think about it. When I was teaching I used a lot of my creativity for lessons and helping students develop ideas. I excused my lack of art making on that. At times teaching insipired me to create, but most of the time it left me a bit dry. I have such artist guilt about creating so seldom, and somehow that is the reason I believe I’m not really an artist. An art professor from my undergrad said that only a few of us would continue to make art in our lives and those that did, were the true artists. I hoped I would keep creating, but convinced myself that I wasn’t a real artist. I mean I had only been making art consistently for 2 years by then.

When I did learn to draw and realised I could be an artist, it was such an exciting time! It felt so right. I could learn to make anything with practice and patience. I was so happy to have the skills and to know I could grow in the skills to be an artist. It really made sense. I had created visual things my whole life. I did love to create. I was moved to create, it made so much sense that I was, deep down an artist. 

I suppose the self-doubt will not ever completely go away, but I hope that it will visit less frequently. 

I AM AN ARTIST! 



Thanks for reading.

Anna