Annika Norris

Nice to meet you!  My name is Annika and I have loved art and story telling my entire life. 

​​

​My work is often heavily influenced by my experience growing up as a competitive dancer, as well as my extensive experience as a musician and clarinet player.  Through dance I gained an understanding of how the body moves, allowing me to create beautiful lines that flow through a pose and even break up a pose to create a different sense of visual interest.  When coupled with a history in music, these pieces of myself provide a unique perspective on translating the language of music into visual terms.  Timing, rhythm, feel, direction, and intensity interplay to bring a dance to life, and in that same way can bring animation to life.

​

I first started learning Photoshop back in middle school and it will always have a special place in my heart.  I love working in After Effects as well, whether that's using graphics I created in Illustrator or using footage for special effects.  Before being introduced to these programs, I found a life-long love of photography sparked by the first polaroid camera my parents gifted to me when I was a kid.  To this day my love of taking pictures of anything and everything has left my poor phone memory and SD cards struggling for space.  More recently I've been digging into 3D Modeling programs like Maya and incorporating my projects into other works.  However, while digital art is my first love, there's still something incredibly therapeutic about sitting down at an easel, headphones in, hands covered in charcoal or paint.

 

I’ve also been heavily and positively influenced by my expanding views of the world.  I’m fortunate in that I was able to spend six weeks studying abroad in London in 2016, and a few years later I was able to travel to Paris and Normandy as a participant in the 75th D-Day Anniversary Celebrations with the Marching Chiefs.  Walking through the city streets and being able to touch walls and statues that still showed scars from the World Wars is a feeling that I’ll never forget.  Suddenly that far away history was real and tangible, right there under my fingers.  Even more surreal was marching along the narrow Normandy street with my collegiate band on June 6, 2018, the beaches a few steps to my left and the cliffs housing old German bunkers towering to my right.  This world is full of stories, most of them older than my country, and I feel a great hunger to hear as many as I can.  I also find myself thinking a lot about the stories I heard from my roommates throughout my time at college as many of them came from backgrounds very different from mine.  Diversity is so important, especially in media, and I aim to both support diverse creators and to include diverse characters in my own works as well, including characters with various cultural backgrounds, orientations, and disability.

 

Something else I find myself contemplating every so often is what art means, what it’s supposed to be, and how I fit into the narrative as an artist in today’s world.  When I first entered the art major at FSU, I wanted to learn how to train my eye and create what I considered art: works that were aesthetically pleasing.  Throughout my education, however, I’ve come to understand how art is so heavily intertwined with current events and making statements so that we might impact the world and the lives of those around us.  I believe art for the sake of bringing joy will always have its place, but I also now appreciate how much we can say through the pieces we create.  I don’t believe that we must choose between these perspectives, that the definition of art must be “either or.”  Being a part of a project that becomes an earth-shaker would be invaluable for me.  I’ll also never undervalue the importance of creating other stories that can bring people escape, as this is also a goal I strive for.  In this life we live, both are necessary.

 

As a creator, I pursue my passions with a determination that is sparked by daydreams and is fueled by hard work.  My perfect career path would be one that allowed me to explore various creative solutions to a problem and would combine my love of the fine arts with the ever-evolving world of technology.