We are made of stardust, Annalisa Bradshaw says. And her paintings reflect that. Her favored topic is to soar among the stars, float over galaxies, and explore the limits of the universe. Her work brings together mythology with science fiction, stretching the imagination across time and space. What her art also does is to heal her spirit when she has had to cope with health issues. For Bradshaw, as for so many artists, art heals.
“I started painting space because I’m not a scientist, but I am really interested in science, space exploration, and the natural world,” Bradshaw says. “When I was little, my parents watched a lot of science fiction, a lot of Star Trek and Star Wars.”
Bradshaw watched, too, and in her young mind, nothing was more beautiful than a large painting she spotted inside a spaceship on a Star Trek episode.
“And I thought, gosh, whoever gets to paint these paintings on these sets must have the best job in the world,” she says.
Making that job her own, Bradshaw became a self-taught artist in oil painting, painting galaxies, planets, stars, and cosmic portraits—people made out of cosmic materials and star dust. She also creates illustrations, comic books, murals, and more. Although she did study studio art in college, Bradshaw dropped her artwork after graduation.
“I quit art for five, maybe seven years,” she says. “My heart wasn’t in it, and I didn’t feel there were any jobs in that field that could support me. But then I picked it up when I had a health crisis in 2013 with a coloring book that I used to deal with the weight of the reality I was facing. And from there, things just picked up a lot of steam.”
Bradshaw rediscovered her love of art and began work on a graphic novel that illustrated her fight with cancer. After that, there was no stopping her as Bradshaw’s popularity has grown.
View more of Annalisa Bradshaw’s work at her website.
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