“Art to Take the Edge Off”
This is the slogan of artist, and recently established, small business “Anna Borkan Art.” And truthfully, how cool is that?
Anna is a friend and co-worker who graciously agreed to be the next featured small business in The Ordinary Hippie’s Small Business Interviews. While newly growing, Anna Borkan Art is an intelligent and passionate demonstration of art. I was blown away to learn about what makes her art personal to her, and her well-balanced boundaries between starting a small business and what brings her joy in her life.
So read on, to learn more about local Clevelander, Anna Borkan, as she talks about her collage artwork, what inspires her, and how she is connecting our community through art.
Please introduce yourself with your name, and where you are from.
My name is Anna Borkan. You can call me Anna. I use she/her pronouns, and I grew up in a suburb of Cleveland on the east side, in Cleveland Heights. I live on the near west side now and I love being near the lake!
What was your life like before starting Anna Borkan Art?
Hmm… what a question. Art hadn’t taken up a big part of my life before I started Anna Borkan Art. After taking a ton of art classes in college, I spent over 5 years not making barely any art. I lived abroad after college, first in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, then in the south of Spain in Sevilla, and then spent a year in Mexico City. I’ve been back in the states for almost 5 years now and I feel like I’m finally getting my head on straight. I just started doing art again around this time last year. Since I’ve been back in the U.S., I’ve been working as a Paralegal, helping immigrants get green cards. I do things like help people apply for asylum, which as you can imagine can be pretty emotionally taxing! I find my day job extremely fulfilling but it has also been such a solace for me to make art in my free time and have that be a sort of solace to me.
Can you tell us the story behind the name of your business?
I wanted my business name to be straight and to the point – and I didn’t like the sound of ‘Art by Anna Borkan’, it felt cheesy to me for some reason, so I just changed the order of the words.
What inspired you to start your business?
My mom is an art historian, and so I’ve grown up with lots of talk about antiques furniture, and stenciling, and paint colors, and types of architecture, but it was awhile before I took to making stuff on my own and thinking of myself as an artist. In fact, it wasn’t really until 2022 that I was like ‘hey, I really like doing this, and I also think I’m good at it, but mostly I just really get something from letting my mind run wild and being creative doing something that is low stakes compared to my day job. I hadn’t really fed that part of my brain for over 5 years, and getting back into it has been so, so rewarding. Then, I was like, well, what if I tried to sell some of my stuff? Starting my own business and going to my first show, which was in December of 2023, was really out of my comfort zone, but I really enjoyed it. It has felt so special to see people I love, love my work, as well as people who don’t even know me to get a kick out of it. It’s been a great re-addition to my life.
What are your goals or what do you strive to accomplish?
Honestly, I just want to keep doing this as long as it makes me happy. I want to make sure that I don’t lean so much into the selling aspect that I don’t continue to spend time making new stuff because that is what I really love. I love the idea of my work living longer than me, and passing my work down to my kids, grandkids, niblings. It is really moving imaging them having my work around to give them joy and comfort long after I am. The business slogan I chose is ‘ART TO TAKE THE EDGE OFF’ and that really is my goal, just to enhance the experience that is life, in this weird, fractured world.
What is unique to your business?
collected on trips to other countries, or from different museums that I’ve visited. I recently started incorporating photography into my collages – so some pieces of my collages are pieces of furniture that were in my house growing up (and that were in my parents’ houses when they were growing up!), or my mom’s book shelf, so it all feels really sentimental to me. I really don’t care about someone liking my stuff, because it’s more important to me for my work to really move someone, and for them to like it enough to have it on display in their house. That’s the goal – not to make money. I’m lucky enough to rely on my business as supplemental income, so it’s all just gravy!
Do you advocate for any causes through your business platform?
I haven’t done much advocating through my business page so far. I’d love to at some point donate a percentage of what I make doing art to causes that are important to me, but right now I’m just focusing on breaking even. I like that idea of doing that, though, and I think that it’s a nice way to attract like-minded folks to your client base. As a queer woman, I care deeply about reproductive justice and LGBTQIA rights, and of course, immigration, but I haven’t used my page to do much advocacy.
What is the greatest challenge in your business?
Honestly, the biggest challenge was just figuring out how to even make a business instagram page. I just felt like I had no idea how to even start. Once I did it though, I was like, whoa, this is so fun and easy and I can just post stuff about my art??? And then people like them??
Is there any particular customer story, business ownership story, or other memory that stands out to you? Â
My first art show was just really incredible. I was expecting it to be really exhausting and that I wouldn’t enjoy it that much, but I had a great time, and I found it really special connecting with people and other artists. It was a huge confidence boost to see that people liked my stuff!
Do you collaborate with any other small businesses?
No.
What is the most important thing people should know about art?
Art is anything. Anyone can be an artist. Labels can get us really in our heads. I’ve spent so much of my life doubting if I was ‘good enough’ or if I was a ‘real artist’. Once I ditched all that, it was really liberating. Now I just wish I’d been able to get to where I am years ago, because I could have been making stuff this whole time.
What advice would you have for someone wanting to start their own business?
I would say that it’s important to think about your goals – there is a lot more work involved that you just don’t even think about until you try to do it. For me, it’s been really rewarding, but I think even just making art to make it is really valuable, and totally valid.
Why should society support small businesses?
Because they’re awesome!!
Where can we find you? Are you on social media?
I am working on my website, so right now you can find me on instagram @anna_borkan_art. You can also email me at borkanar@gmail.com.
Is there anything else that you would like to share with the community?
Thanks for listening to me gush about collages!!
Is there any question that I did not ask, but I should have? Â
Where do you get your inspiration? What do you love about your medium/type of product?