ALPENA — Anneliese Mathia isn’t afraid to mix light and dark concepts in her art, and she produces pieces using mixes of watercolors, pen and ink and acrylic paints.

“I love doing acrylic painting, then I also do watercolor and watercolor pen and ink. So I go in with a watercolor wash or do different designs. Then I go in with pen and do my abstract designs,” she said.

With her abstract designs Mathia likes to draw hidden faces, shapes and botanicals.

“I really like just doing pen and ink sketching and doing pencil as well. I feel like color draws the eye,” she said. “When everyone is walking by, the color draws you in. But I like color, it has that happy feeling. I do a lot of dark work as well. I like to mix both together. My art is a little more funky and I’ve always wanted to be an illustrator. I like to mix that in with my art as well. I want to push the limits a little bit.”

Mathia first began to appreciate art as a child.

“I’ve always drawn ever since I was a kid. My first experience, I had this sketchbook when I was five or six and I was obsessed with drawing horses, that’s all I would do. It was bad. I have old sketchbooks of me just drawing the same horse over and over and over again,” she said.

She looked up to a cousin who also is an artist and drawing became a habit.

“I got even more involved in high school doing window painting and doing that sort of thing,” she said.

Mathia moved to Alpena from Fife Lake in her freshman year of high school, where her love of art continued to grow.

“I had a teacher, Mrs. Bedford, she was one of the art teachers at the high school. She was my art teacher and she inspired me so much,” Mathia said.

Bedford helped Mathia apply for a Congressional Art Competition in 2014. She won her division and it helped her realize she wanted to make art her career.

“So that was a turning point for me I thought ‘Ahh this is what I want to do.’ I went to ACC and I received my two-year fine arts degree. I just graduated last spring,” she said.

She has talked with a couple of art galleries in northern Michigan to do shows and she also has one large project in the works.

This summer Mathia, Sadie Jacobs and Carol Bobolts will design and paint the new Hungry Hippie building, the igloo-shaped former Dairy Queen on State Street in Alpena.

“It’s going to be a hippie theme. So we’re going to do a ’70s inspired vibe. So hopefully we’ll be starting when it’s warmer out. It’s a latex-based duralast cover so we have to use latex outdoor paint. We’re going to prime then paint. We’re hoping to get it done in June or July,” she said.

She said she finally feels she is in a situation where she can work on and sell her work.

“I work 3-4 hours a day, as long as I’m doing something productive once a day,” she said.

Mathia said she will take her time with an art career and if she chooses she may got back to school.

“I want to see if I can make a living before I go to college because art school is so expensive. I want to go somewhere in Michigan. There are two colleges I really like. I did get into Kendall College of Fine Art and Design or I would go to (College for Creative Studies) in Detroit,” she said.

As Mathia works and shows more of her art she hopes people who see her pieces reflect on what’s in front of them.

“People often ask me ‘How my art makes me feel.’ I want them to ask what does it make you feel. I want you to question what you’re looking at a little bit,” she said.

To see more of her work visit her Facebook page at A.K.M. Art or her Etsy page at AkmartStudio.

Jordan Spence can be reached via email at jspence@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5687.