Her Story
About Anne
I've been a practicing artist since I was a teenager, starting with commissioned portraits in pencil as a summer job during high school and college. I'm the third generation artist in my family - my grandmother was a self-taught artist with spectacular ability, and she has 4 children who have all gone on to do professional artwork. I grew up in a family where art was encouraged and there was a lot of opportunity. After college, I worked in marketing and advertising as a marketing manager for a small group of restaurants in Tennessee and Alabama. Then I lived in Washington, D.C. and worked for two small PR firms, came back to Nashville for a while doing mostly art, then went to New York and worked in event planning and PR. My husband and I both grew up in Nashville, and after living in New York, we moved back here. I took a hiatus when our kids were little to be home with them, and then I dipped my toe back into painting, which has been a really great thing. I started my business under the official title of Anne Trainer Designs about 5 years ago, but I've done commissioned work for 40 years. My main expertise now is paintings of football helmets - it's very specific. I have 3 sons who were all playing football around the same time, and when our oldest was a senior, his team was undefeated and went to the state championship. I painted a few helmets for the school art show and walked out with commissions for 15 more. That was about 4 years ago, and as Nashville has become a higher profile place and more people have come here, I've gotten far-reaching requests for Penn State helmets, high school helmets, professional ones, and multi-generational family school helmets. I also do a lot of florals and custom commission work where people come to me with photos from memorable trips or special family moments and I paint them. My extensive work in pencil drawings taught me about value and shading, which makes a big difference when trying to make something look like it's reflecting light.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Anne
01What do you attribute your success to?
I had a medical hiccup in college - a head injury that wiped out all of my functional short-term memory. I went from having straight A's at a competitive college to flunking everything. I think that persistence and believing in yourself and your ability to reach your goals, there's really no replacement for that. I was fortunate - I came from a situation where a lot of things were easy for me, and I was a hard worker. But up until then, things just came easily, and if I had an idea, I could pretty much accomplish that and achieve whatever I set my mind to. Then all of a sudden, to find yourself in a situation where you can't do those things that you always were able to, I think you find new ways, and you find new strengths and new parts of yourself to trust. And I think that's invaluable.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
It's more career advice that I have learned over time, not so much that anybody ever said it overtly to me. I feel like to reach a point where our careers are fulfilling involves having a lot of resilience. You're gonna face failure, you're gonna face hurdles you never expected to show up in your path. Being able to trust yourself, to find solutions, and to experiment with new ways of doing things in order to solve a problem like that - I think there's really nothing that you can replace in a professional career than providing yourself with that kind of flexibility and dedication at the same time. My high school art teacher said to me that it's one thing to enjoy the drawing turning out to be what you wanted it to be, but the amazing thing is that the frustrations that you encounter when you're trying to make something what you want it to be are so helpful in teaching you how to overcome hurdles. Weirdly, art has a little bit of a life lesson in it. You try something, it doesn't work, you gotta go back and try something else.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Be who you are. Don't try to fit in somebody else's box. Pursue the parts of your work that are fulfilling to you and that you find useful in your own life. Because what you find to be useful in your own life is typically also going to be something that's useful for someone else. It will help someone else along the way.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I would say the biggest challenges are staying true to the kind of art that is fulfilling to you individually. I think there's a lot of push to do what's popular, there's a lot of push to do what is gonna be considered really edgy. And that's great. But I think one of the main things that I've noticed about art for me in the last 40 years is that none of us can be all things to all people. When we do work that is not aligned with our vision of self and the things that are important to us, then I think that comes through. So by pursuing things that feel integral to your life, or your beliefs, or your fulfillment, I think that comes through in the painting, or in the creativity. And that will be true across artwork, music, all of that.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think it is so incredibly important to be true to who you know yourself to be. I've seen a lot of people try to perform for others, try to be something that other people expect of them, and I feel like you can almost sense the discomfort there. Be yourself, be authentic. Have integrity. Do what you say you're gonna do. And be a person that others can rely on.
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