Congrats to Young Women Artists Part 2

Womanthology: Heroic — described in a post last week — is a compilation of graphic art by women. It can now be found at your local art, gaming, and book stores. It is an exciting time for all who are involved in the project, including Summer Hemingray, a 10-year-old artist. She contributed an illustration of Joan of Arc. Summer kindly answered the Muse of Nerds questions, and I was intrigued by what inspired her:

1. How did you find out about the Womanthology project?
My cousin, Laura Morley, told me about it.

2. What was your process for selecting the pieces to submit?
I thought about the title, heroic, and I assumed it would be about heroic tales of women. I came up with the suffragettes and Joan of Arc. I didn’t know much about suffragettes so I went with a comic of Joan of Arc, which I drew both in and out of school.

3. What are your thoughts on the whole Womanthology project, how it impacts you, how it might impact other young artists, girls and women.
In my opinion the whole Womanthology idea is a truly magnificent one, which will go down in history. As for how it impacts me, I am proud to be part of something as great and as interesting as the project, and it is a great opportunity to be published. I personally think it will inspire hidden artists to send their work into the world.

4.Do you have a favorite time and/or place to do your art?
My favorite place is in my parents’ bedroom just after school when I’m full of ideas.

5. What/who inspires you? Where do you get your ideas?
I get inspired by lots of people who leave their mark, even if it’s just in a small area. I get my ideas at school when my teacher, Chris Youles, shows us Odd Box on the BBC Newsbeat website, or an amusing website where people have done interesting things.

6. What are your future artistic plans and/or career hopes?
I’d like to do paintings and/or models on my weekends, but most of all I would like to be a politician.

7. Part of the reason Womanthology was started is because women artists have a hard time being respected in the comics industry. What do you think about that? If you or another young girl is interested in being a comic artist, what do you think could help change this problem?
I think that the general comic society is quite sexist in that way and as an answer, maybe a group of famous female comic artists could build a comic company where they could display their work, by in doing so, get the public interested, therefore making a change in the way the comic society thinks about female artists.

Thanks, Summer! Good luck on all your future endeavors!