How long have you been creating?

I have been drawing and painting since I was very, very little. My father was a frustrated artist who, rather than go to art school like he planned got married and had 4 kids to support. As a result, he encouraged us kids to draw and to paint. I can remember being probably about 6 or 7 (I was the oldest) and all 4 of us would be drawing naked ladies out of Playboy magazines that my Dad would give us. My mother just about blew a gasket but my father was convinced we needed to be able to draw a human figure with the right perspective and body parts.

What is your media of choice?

I painted in acrylics for a long time but about a year ago, made a switch to oils. You couldn’t pry them out of my hands now!

What are you motivations for creating?

I’m a Therapist/Counselor in private practice in my other life. One of my partners looks at my art and tells me that I’m still being a Therapist! She’s right, probably. I paint from my experience of helping people to see that there are options in life and that there are ways that they already know about to do more than just survive life. I want someone who sees my work to have an emotional reaction to my work and hopefully, for some, a connection and maybe even some healing. I’ve worked with a lot of families and kids who are helpless in the dynamics of what goes on around them and to them and yet they survive and are for the most part, happy! Later, these same adults come to therapy feeling lost and helpless. I ask people to remember how they survived whatever happened then.

What other artists or movements inform your work?

I love a lot medieval art and the old Masters. I’m very influenced by a lot of the works by those long dead artists. I also like a lot of the underground work shown in recent years by artists who paint to inspire thought and evoke emotion. Labels are tricky but “Magical Realism” may partially define what I do, reality with a magical twist. Some of the current artists who inspire me are Chris Mars, Gabrielle Bakker, Laurie Lipton, Marion Peck, Renata Palubinskas and Scott Musgrove.

What do you find visually stimulating right now?

Everything is visually stimulating but I always watch people’s faces, for expression, for the play of light, for the emotions just under the surface.

What's the last book you read?

I read a lot. I usually read popular fiction like Steven King or Dean Koontz. I like to read books by authors with incredible and somewhat twisted imaginations.

In what ways does Steve influence your personal work? And does it help or hinder having another artist in the house?

It helps to have another artist in the house. Steve understands how important painting is to me and we can talk about everything from themes to techniques. I always ask Steve for advice about whether or not something in my work has the right impact, colors are working, perspective is right. Steve also does most of the nitty, gritty sales stuff too. He handles sales, shipping and marketing for me, most of the time. If we do a show, he’s the one who gets everything there, paintings set up and the actual sales. I get to just talk about my art! I’m sorry to say though, that he works so hard on my work that he doesn’t get as much time to paint as either of us would like.

What would you like your fellow EBSQ artists and our collectors to know about you and/or your work?

That’s a tough question! Really, I just want the work to speak for itself and to speak individually to the viewer. Who I am or what I intended to say means very little because I hope each painting has it’s own voice and speaks to only those who want to hear. A painting takes on a life of it’s own and most of the time my goal is to just give it life.

www.HarperShanks.com
Ann Harper