SSNAP Salt Spring Prize – Joan McConnell Award recipient Anna Gustafson, whose work captured both juror attention and audience interest in the recent exhibition. In this Q&A, she reflects on her experience with SSNAP, her evolving practice, and what this moment of recognition means as she looks toward future work.

  1. When you first learned you’d won the Salt Spring Prize, what was the very first thought or feeling that came up for you? I was amazed and happy, but then quickly filled with a sense of responsibility towards helping SSNAP! I’m an artist at the periphery of the art world and I owe a great deal to the hard-working people who keep it going.
  2. “What George Said…” is rooted in personal history and care. What does it mean to have this kind of deeply intimate work recognized on a national stage? Of course the possibility of national recognition is of huge importance for any artist, but so far that has not happened for me, despite this wonderful award.
  3. Was there a moment during the making of this piece when you realized it was becoming something more than you initially intended? I don’t approach my work with a specific intention. Instead I am asking questions, and perhaps coming closer to answers through the process of making. I almost always inhabit completely whatever project I am working on, and stepping back for perspective often occurs right near completion! So if there was a moment, it was probably then.
  4. How does receiving the Joan McConnell Award impact the way you think about your practice moving forward – either practically or creatively? Practically it does help me realize projects that I have been thinking about – some literally for years…. and of course it would be a bonus if this honour opens the doors to showing my work more extensively.
  5.  If someone encounters your work for the first time through this exhibition, what do you hope they feel or carry with them afterward? My hope for that person is that they find themselves drawn into a piece of art in a deeper way, going beyond the obvious first appearance to motive and story and even thoughts about decisions I made about materials and technique!