Tell us a bit about yourself and how you found your way to a creative career as an illustrator.
My name is Anat Gutberg, I’m 35 years old, based in Tel Aviv. I have been drawing/sketching/painting/expressing myself in visual ways ever since I can remember.
When I was 23 years old, I started studying at ‘The School of Visual Theater’, a small and intimate school for performance studies in Jerusalem. Within a year I realized that the stage was not right for me and I went—completely inexperienced—to work as a graphic designer in a post-production studio. After two years in the advertising industry, I wanted to do something for myself and my personal development. That's how I found myself in the ‘Visual Communication’ department at ‘Bezalel Academy’. Between semesters I worked as a freelancer, so I had some clients to build on. I rented a small studio and started my path as an independent creator.
How did you find your illustration medium and style, and who and what influenced you?
The truth is that I can’t really say I found it. I mean, there’s a certain line or connection between my work which I can call "my style", but the medium changes all the time—it can be an animated music video, a branding project, or even installation artwork. I love the freedom to switch between different mediums, even getting to change the materials and tools I work with every once in a while. It helps keep me fresh coming to the studio every day with passion.
When I think about artists who’ve influenced me, they would almost always be artists who work in more than one medium. For example, besides being a brilliant director, David Lynch is also a painter and an excellent musician. Another example is Man Ray, who self-defined as a painter, was known as a photographer, and fascinated me mostly through his films.
As a teenager studying in art school, one of the first pieces of artwork that I was able to say I loved was 'One and Three Chairs' by Joseph Kosuth. I was mainly curious about the gap created by taking a simple object like a chair from one medium to another, and how it affected the viewer, as well as the creator. There is something about the diversity of mediums that makes the practice a little more light and playful. For this reason, I really like the work of Alexander Calder, another artist who influenced me a lot. Through his work you can see a guy who remained a child until his last day—and enjoyed every moment. Another good example is the animator Norman Mcclaren, who played a lot with shapes and sounds. I believe in being a contented artist and not a tormented artist. Inspiration and motivation come to me only when I'm having fun. I can get impatient when I’m bored but I have no problem sitting for hours and drawing frame after frame of something that fascinates me.
What subjects are you most fascinated with?
I was always captivated by nature. As a child I used to talk to flowers, collect leaves and stones, and observe the urban nature that surrounded our house (I still do, in fact :)). I find myself fascinated by the surprising forms in nature, the perfect compositions created by chance, the color palettes that change over time, and the way "time" becomes tangible through processes that can be observed (the growth of a plant, leaves turning yellow, etc.) Everything in nature happens by coincidence, completely accidentally, and produces the most amazing and beautiful phenomena. A significant part of my work is dedicated to finding systems that generate “mistakes”—to build a setup that allows me to go wild and get creative, and then, out of all the chaos, choose the most interesting and authentic outcomes. Many times I find that the setup that works best for me is one that has a timeline, even if the end result I'm aiming for is static. When working with a timeline you deal with movement, rhythm, and change. The transformation of an image fascinates me. The experience of creating animation is slow and Sisyphean but also almost meditative. I am intrigued by this contradiction, and by the magic that occurs when everything connects and comes to life.
How do you create characters, what inspires them, and how do you use color?
In my work I’m not necessarily creating characters, I mainly create images. Usually, I’m searching for some sort of atmosphere. The atmosphere can be expressed in colors and materials, through movement, or through an object or figure. Sometimes it helps me to find the soundtrack first and only later understand what the image should be, or what its colors are.
Music helps me a lot because it is an abstract medium. It has no physical representation, but it is so total and undeniable. When I'm lost and need some inspiration, I access my personal archive. I feel most creative when I have a bank of materials to play with. My work is not limited to working hours in the studio. It continues when I’m riding my bicycle around the city, traveling abroad, driving a car, or any other moment that I choose to document. These materials become a bank that I use in almost every project, in one way or another, sometimes as the image itself, sometimes as a reference, and sometimes as raw material that becomes something else.
For example, in the music video I created for ‘D Fine Us’ (an Israeli musician), I was looking for ways to express a washing motion that would wrap the screen, and also feel organic.
In my archive, I found a video I took of waves crashing against the shore in Sinai (Egypt).
I colored it and processed it in a way that worked with the visual language of the video, leaving no trace of the beach, isolating only the movement, rhythm and texture.
If you had to pick a favorite project, which one are you most proud of and why?
That’s a very difficult question. I feel that each project brings out a different side of me and there is no one project that contains everything. Also I feel that I am a little different in each period, interested in different practices and techniques. There are times when I am more of an animator, a graphic designer, an art director, or a video artist.
On the other hand, some projects are ongoing and consistent, so maybe that’s a good example. A few years ago I came across one of Daidō Moriyama's famous photographs, called ‘Stray Dog’. This photograph captured my attention. I began to sketch it over and over, and each time I felt that I was getting to know its composition better and found more freedom to experiment with it. It became a daily routine, one sketch a day. Every day I sketched it a little differently—a different style, a different tool, colors, stain, line, flat, deep. The act of sketching the same familiar composition over and over again allowed me the freedom to focus on the action itself. This led me to ask myself, “what happens when the hand knows an image so well? What qualities does the image still hold, that I haven’t revealed yet? Can an internal movement occur within a static image? And what is the power of repetition?”
What’s next for you in your career?
I recently moved to a new studio. It didn't happen by choice, but during the move I realized that there is something right about changing my work environment once in a while—to renew my work setup, and change the view I see from the window every day. This change brings new possibilities that are hard to anticipate, and takes me out of my comfort zone and my old habits.
So for now I'm interested in finding a lifestyle that will allow me to move much more often—to travel, and at the same time continue to do what I do in a way that is unique to the place I’m in at the moment. Some artworks are site-specific and I believe work processes can be site-specific as well. I'm interested to see what this lifestyle can bring.
Rapid Fire Round - Choose one answer! you can add a few words if you like :)
Weekend - lounge in bed / go out and party? Party. The weekend is the time to be social
Coffee or tea? Coffee
Cats or dogs? I grew up with dogs. but I recently found out I am allergic, so I have to settle for a cat
Favorite season? winter!
Cinema or Netflix? cinema
Pool or beach? beach
Computer or sketchbook? sketchbook
Text or voice note? text
City or countryside? City, with frequent visits in the countryside
Getting dressed: colorful or monochromatic? Monochromatic with a touch of color
