#BEYOUROWN MEETS ANA FINEL HONIGMAN

Ana Finel Honigman is the founder and director of the AFH- Culture Writers Agency http://afh-culturewriters.com. The agency is composed of seasoned journalists, scholars, and critics with expertise in art, design and fashion. They edit, author and ghostwrite artist statements, press releases, catalog essays, web content, screenplays, portfolios, applications and similar written material.Before starting the agency, Ana completed a doctoral degree in History Art at Oxford University and wrote regularly for the New YorkTimes, British Vogue, Vogue.com, Artnet and similar publications. This week #BEYOUROWN is given the 3 step rule through life according to Ana.

As a New York-born critic, consultant and independent exhibition curator with a Ph.D. in the History of Art. Is Art a career you knew you wished to peruse from a young age?

I have always been fascinated by art and publications. My interest in art started with my own artistic expression but evolved in a desire

to help artists express themselves. Magazines were also an early and prevailing fixation for me.My mother used to tease me because whenever I was really late coming home from school, she knew I had been in magazine stores poring over Vogues and art publications, a man of which I write for now. I even made four issues of my own “magazine,” called Elan, when I was seven. It even had made-up ads and a masthead, where I was editor-in-chief as well as my own intern.

You write about contemporary art and fashion for some of the worlds most influential magazines including AnOther Magazine, Dazed and Confused, Paper and WGSN. What makes each artist different from the next and do you feel that it’s becoming an oversaturated market?

The best artists create work that is simultaneously intimate and generalised. They extrapolate from their own experiences to make

insightful observations about the world. Most people have something both unique and relatable to them. The artists who can harness those qualities can transcend the rest.

In many ways, however, it is an intensely over-saturated market and young people are pressured into committing resources and their identities towards degrees or experiences that might not help them, longterm.

There is crushing competition and little chance of achieving stability in creative fields. But, if an artist can afford to fully focus on contributing some singular perspective and creative statement, then that artist can garner meaningful attention by understanding themselves and what matters to them.

Can you give your 3 steps on how to #BEYOUROWN when it comes to following your own journey through life?

1. You should always question your motives. Wonder about the origins of your ideas and actions. Try to investigate why you hold certain beliefs and assertions.

2. Know your context. Think about how you’ve been privileged or disadvantaged. Think critically about authority and what systems benefit or hinder you. Think about who you are – in relation to your community, your history, your family and your younger self. Always consider how your identity might affect how others perceive you and what those perceptions mean to you.

3. Learn to love your own company. Make yourself laugh. Enjoy being alone. Find pleasure in amusing yourself.

Twitter: @anafinelhonigma