What’s with the name?
Have you seen the movie, Up? Remember Dug, the talking dog? The adorable one who gets distracted and says, “squirrel!”? The squirrel has become the mascot of the ADHD community and has helped to make the conversation about it easier for me. While I am not defined by my ADHD, I definitely own it and embrace the superpowers it gives me. As far as the “secret” aspect, there is an ongoing joke about conspiracy theories and top secret activities being labeled, “secret squirrel shit,” and since I didn’t think I could market my work under that name (even though I REALLY wanted to), I decided to go with the generic “art” to cover all my shenanigans.
Ok, enough with all this “squirrel” nonsense, who are you?
My name is Annique and I’ve been an artist and crafter since as long as I could hold a pencil. I’ve dabbled in virtually every medium, but have the longest relationship with markers, watercolor, and paper. My current full time gig is teaching, but I’ve always been a firm believer in the “side hustle.” I launched Secret Squirrel Art first as an Instagram handle when I got into bullet journaling to save my friends from having to see constant pictures of my doodles instead of my usual food, beer, and cat pictures. As I got more into bullet journaling, I rediscovered my love of lettering and gave my artsy side more spotlight. Through the encouragement/nagging of friends, I pushed myself to market myself a little more. Ultimately, I taught some lettering classes in 2016 and eventually worked up the nerve to check off one of my little girl dreams: sell my work at a craft fair. I turned myself into a one woman factory and used the unsold inventory to open my Etsy shop (also at the long nagging of the friends mentioned earlier). Since then, I’ve had the pleasure to do quite a few custom pieces and continue to flex my creative muscles. I’m playing around with the digital side of art and lettering now, stay tuned to see what comes of it!
Secret Squirrel Art 