The place I create from is inward, and filled with images, visions, and voices. My creations are the articulation of those visions. It is shamanic in feeling; I commune with, and become one with the animals and goddesses I create, merging my identity with theirs. When I create, I open a doorway and listen for the energy of change and transformation to come through and manifest on my canvas.

The act of creation is one of moving into relationship with what is being created; I enable birth through a sensing of what needs to come into existence. I see an ear, and my hands move to release the ear, and as the ear comes into being, the head begins to take form. As the being emerges, a conversation begins. Does the paw want to reach out, or is it at rest? Does the cat want to pounce and play, or sleep? I am not deciding her form; she is.

The style in which I paint is Contemporary Symbolism. I have always been intrigued with patterns, symbols, and myths and how they impact culture and vice versa. Deciphering the intertwined

meanings is fascinating to me because my work is about shifting people’s perspective and healing their connection to their own creativity. My intention is for the symbols in my paintings to speak to the viewer at a deeper level then the mind.

When I was a child, my mother would take us up to San Francisco to the museums, especially the De Young. She believed experiencing artwork was critical in forming who we would become. I have fond memories of she and I going up to the latest exhibits together. My mother, and her mother before her, are blessed with the Sight.

I adore working with color - painting layers and layers translucently upon each other to build up depth and mystery in my paintings. I remember going to the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco and standing in front of a painting by one of the early Impressionists. It was a street scene in Paris and the shadows were painted with violets, which was not the color I expected at the grand age of 15. The warm buttery highlights and deep violet shadows and how the artist used the colors in his painting to breathe life into it was illuminating. It awoke in me a deep desire to engage with color.

I am immensely grateful for my teachers: Sue Hoya Sellars who taught me to “write grass” and Shiloh Sophia McCloud who taught me that painting with intention is how I do my work in the world. The way in which Georgia O’Keefe painted color and light, Frida Kahlo created symbolic stories, and Judy Chicago used texture and culture to make political statements changed my view of life and still inspire me.

May you create the world you want to see and may it be one of beauty and harmony.

© 2007-2011 Annette Wagner. All Rights Reserved. Site design by Annette Wagner.