Spotlight Series: Anna Lustberg
Spotlight Series: Women Makers
Featuring Anna Lustberg
Illustrator & Graphic Designer
Happy Women’s Herstory Month, tea lovers! We are excited to bring you a series of conversations focused on some amazing women our founder, Laura, works in collaboration with for Modestine® Tea. Each maker anchors her brand in the beauty of connection, art, healing and community.
Our fist chat is with Anna Lustberg, whose beautiful drawings illuminate the affirmation cards you find in our ritual boxes. Anna is an illustrator and graphic designer based in NYC who draws playful, relatable vignettes of everyday life. After a daily drawing challenge on Instagram reignited her passion to create, she created Life is Short: A Coloring Book, illustrated a children’s book, hand-painted murals in Brooklyn and Harlem, and had a solo exhibition in September 2019 titled “What's Mine is Yours: Illustrated Memories by Anna Lustberg.” Anna participates in group exhibitions and continues to work primarily on book projects, custom artwork commissions, and collaborations.
I love that an Instagram challenge reignited your passion for drawing. When did you first develop this passion for art?
Ever since I was young, around 4 years old, I was writing and illustrating stories. I’d sit for hours making up characters and stories to go along with them, and my little sister would often sit across from me at the table to color in my black pen line drawings and do some illustrations of her own. It wasn’t until after college and once I was finding my way in the world as a “professional” of some sort, searching for my purpose and looking at my strengths, that I turned back to this activity that came so naturally to me as a kid.
To this day, my drawings look very similar -- albeit more polished and developed -- to those I made then. I’d often draw big families, ones with many pets and sets of twins and triplets, because I always loved the idea of being surrounded by a huge clan. I only realized my passion for art once I was working at contemporary art galleries here in NYC, with talented artists from all over the world, that I felt inspired and called to put my work out there, first on Instagram, and see where it would lead me.
What are some sources of inspiration for your creativity from daily life? How do these inform the ways you show up in the world as an artist?
I show up in the world as an observer, a translator, and a connector. All of my drawings, whether they’re simple vignettes or detailed illustrations, are drawn from what I observe and experience in daily life. It can be a random conversation that sparks an idea, or an incident that sucks in the moment that I can later laugh about and make fun of through a drawing or comic.
The current relationships I have in my life -- with myself and others -- definitely inform my ideas. I then show up as a translator, as I put a lot of thought into how I can communicate these ideas in my style and perspective in a way that will also resonate with viewers. This is where I ultimately show up as a connector; I’ve learned that my purpose in drawing is for viewers to establish a connection with me and my art through our shared human experiences. I want the artwork to be a safe space for others to “see themselves” in my illustrations.
Your collaboration with Modestine® Tea affirms self love in such a beautiful way! Talk to us about this latest project (the Queen / Self Love ritual box) and the affirmation card you and Laura (founder) worked on together.
Thank you! I believe every product and story that Modestine® Tea brings to the world is beautiful. Working with Laura is an absolute joy because it feels like we’re always on the same wavelength and share a vision every time we connect.
With the Queendom Reign Self Love ritual box, Laura wanted her customers to understand that having a cup of tea is more than that, but a personal experience, or part of a ritual, in taking time just for oneself. I let her know that I totally related to having a busy, crazy, running-around kind of week and coming home to my safe space to decompress and get back to my center. It also seemed timely in that so many of us have been isolated from others in the pandemic. So while we can’t have many tea parties or social gatherings these days, Modestine® Tea aimed to cultivate a better self-care practice and stronger relationship to self.
Like always, Laura and I talked about this purpose on the phone and came up with the vision of a cozy room at home, a setting where someone spends that alone time to reflect and say their affirmations. She sent me images of all of the items that would be in the ritual box for me to include in the drawing as a way to illustrate how her customers can set up their space and use these items for their self-loving ritual.
Queendom Reign Ritual Box - Self Love Affirmation artwork by Anna L.
I took creative liberties with the colors and the interior decor items because I know Laura and her aesthetic so well; essentially, we painted the picture together of a peaceful, comforting setting in our minds and I simply brought it to life.
How do affirmations enrich your own wellness journey?
Affirmations help pull me out of my dark places on my toughest days. For me, when I first wake up in the morning is when I’m most delicate. When I’m just opening my eyes is when I feel most overcome by fear, or paralyzed to face the day, or just feeling all the hurt by what I may be going through at the time. So it’s then, early in the morning, where I have to muster strength and courage to get things moving.
I started reading aloud affirmations on those days when I didn’t know what else to do, and they helped me reset my focus and intentions on positive things I could accomplish and feel about myself despite anything else going on. Once my day gets going I always feel better, and by nighttime, I have so much to reflect on from the day that I don’t go to sleep with that heaviness.
My own wellness journey is about awareness and recognition about how I feel, then riding the wave -- or moving through -- those emotions, to find that every single time I make it out I can look back upon a lesson. I feel stronger every time I show up for myself.
What is the best way for folks to stay connected with you and your work?
Follow me on Instagram @annalustberg, and sign up for my email list. That’s where I share free goodies like phone wallpaper designs and other news that’s only for my VIPs.
