the spotlight: anna mccullough

If Anna McCullough could be known for any type of art, it would be Americana. This style, rich in folk history and culture, reflects the love she has for cozy visuals brought to life through ink drawings. Works from North Carolinian artist Bob Timberlake and Frederick Remington are amongst some of her favorites. Her love for Victorian-era etchings and whimsical imagination originated from her adoration of Disney art.

From the days when she would admire the watercolor illustrations in Winnie the Pooh storybooks and mimicked the design of the classic Disney princesses to a T, McCullough always loved bringing a sense of childlike wonder and imagination to her work.

To this day, one of her biggest artistic inspirations is Mary Blair, the pioneer of the old Disney aesthetic found in legendary pictures like “Peter Pan” and “Cinderella.”

Her initial introduction to art through children’s literature and film transcends to her work in college. Today, her passion projects align with children’s book illustrations, many of which are biblical in nature. The playful and imaginative style that she brings to each literary project matches the energy of the contents perfectly.

Now in her first year as a master’s student, her relationship with art has only grown as an act of worship to the Lord. Whether or not the content she is producing is explicitly biblical in nature, she uses each opportunity that is presented to her as a means to grow closer to the ultimate Creator.

At one time, she didn’t know art was a viable career path that could be pursued. But through support from her family and her high school art teachers, she made the leap to pursue the calling the Lord had placed on her life from a young age — even back when she would use her mother’s scrapbooking materials to create something new.

And during the times when her disdain for school seemed too much to bear, McCullough looked to each assignment presented before her as an opportunity to turn the task into something creative in nature.

Entering into her years of college, she originally planned to study graphic design. This decision was purely a practical one, as she was very cognizant of the stigma around getting jobs in the art world post-grad. This major felt like a safe bet, although her heart really lied in the traditional styles of art and drawing.

It was when she got saved at the age of 17 where her priorities shifted. After this, she was very intentional about praying that the Lord would somehow use her unique giftings to bring glory to His name, someway, somehow. To some, art is a less-than-practical career field.

To McCullough, though, art can be found anywhere in everyday life. 

In the subsequent days following her prayer, the Lord seemed to answer it directly when an author named Diana Goodrich walked into her family’s antique store. As Goodrich browsed around the shop, she referenced her need for a children’s book illustrator. Immediately calling to mind the prayer from a few days before, McCullough jumped at the opportunity to work with her.

“She got me set up with her editor, then got me set up with the Empowerment Publishing House, and God just used that to open crazy doors,” McCullough said. “Not only doing entirely Christian children’s book illustrations, but also learning how to work with so many different personality types…and open doors to learn how to do crazy problem solving with people, so that was really fun.”

Getting the opportunity to contribute to gigs as an ink illustrator is a dream come true for McCullough. With any project she begins, it’s also important for her to remind herself to remain grounded in her relationship with Christ. As an artist, it can be a struggle at times to remember to not put so much pressure on abilities and output, and instead make the conscious choice to rest in the creative process.

“Your worth does not lie in how well you can perform,” McCullough said. “Yes, we have a skill set here and you have to be passionate about what you do and there’s a certain element you have to be good at it, but…you don’t have to be absolutely perfect all the time because that’s an impossible standard to uphold yourself to.”

Throughout her college years, the term “surrender” has been a throughline that continuously brings her back to the Lord. Even today, as the Assistant Curator of the campus art museum, McCullough sees every opportunity as a reminder that God has placed her exactly where she needs to be.

“Consistently He pulls up and just proves over and over again that art is absolutely 100 percent the thing that He wants me to be doing,” she said. “I get so much fulfillment from it. In our live drawing class…it’s the one time in the week during class where my mind goes silent when I’m working, and you enter this flow state.”

When moments of insecurity creep in, McCullough reflects to see how the Lord has been faithful, furthering her along on the correct path. As she continues to welcome the goodness and grace that abounds from her relationship with God into her projects, she never fails to see His recurring faithfulness show up in the storylines, with each stroke of the pen.