Anaka Sanders is majoring in Journalism and Mass Communications and minoring in Art History and is graduating in May 2023. For this, Anaka submitted her paper collages - made with different magazines, scissors, and glue - with a hint of some glitter and writing! Two are on paper, and one is on canvas! Balancing her creative practices with academics is hard. Although she rarely has time to create collages while school is going on, her best work comes out when she feels stressed or unhappy. Art is an outlet for her during the school year, so when her academics get tough, she turns to art.

Art is important to Anaka because she spends so much time around it, helping others make a connection with art. When she gets the chance, she loves to create art that means something to her, something that is connected to what she is going through. She has been making art since she was little. She was always involved in art classes and summer camps through elementary, middle, and high school. It wasn't until the beginning of 2020 when Covid hit, that she became very interested in making collages. Expressing her feelings through cutting and pasting the words of songs that were speaking to her at the moment gave her a path to feeling understood. Now, whenever she goes through something deep, she dives into the colors and words of her collages - as a journalism and art history major, this combines her love for both writing and art. 

Anaka’s advice to aspiring artists is, “If I could give one piece of advice to aspiring artists, it would be to just create. A lot of times, I think about what I could make and what I would do or say in the work - but then do not actually put it together. I have a list of different collages I could form and want to, but I get in my own way, thinking there are more important things to do. When you have the feeling to create, follow it.”

Follow Anaka on Instagram: @anaka.sanders