Kaya Anderson-Head
Freelance Illustrator
Education:
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art with a concentration in Illustration; Minor in Art History, UNC Charlotte (2023)
“I loved the sense of community that the illustration program created, and how much I learned about art as a career.”
Although illustration was her concentration, Kaya Anderson-Head says that she benefitted greatly from the broad art education that she received at UNC Charlotte.
“Taking so many different classes from different art disciplines was so helpful because I feel like my work in [one class] informed and influenced my work in other classes,” she told Associate Professor of Art History Jim Frakes in an interview. “I feel like I was given a lot of opportunities to work with tools and materials I never would have been able to otherwise.”
While a student, Kaya won “Best in Show” in the Department of Art & Art History’s 54th Annual Juried Student Exhibition, selected by Dr. Emily Stamey, curator at Weatherspoon Museum in Greensboro. Her work was featured in an exhibition at the Popp-Martin Student Union Gallery on campus in 2023.
Since graduation, Kaya works as a freelance illustrator, based in Charlotte.
“I have done a commission for a Dungeons and Dragons character in watercolor where I designed the character, clothing, and prop as the client specified,” she told Frakes. “I have also done digital album covers, as well as illustrations to accompany poems.”
Kaya contributed “La Belle Dame (2024),” a watercolor & colored pencil illustration inspired by a celebrated poem by John Keats, to the Generations exhibition in celebration of the Department of Art & Art History’s 60th anniversary.