I am an Artist: Anna Marie

1. Why are you an artist?

I’ll always be an artist for the same reason I’ll always be a student—always moving, always learning, always creating.

2. Is there a concept behind your work? If so, please tell us about it.

I like to keep the eye moving, and create art as interesting and complex as something you’d find in nature—leaves, stones, people are endlessly intricate, delicate, bold.

3. Why do you use the medium that you use?

I love the intense contrast of black and white that you get with ink, and the one-of-a-kind spontaneity and character that comes from dip pens and nibs.



4. Tell us why you are so attracted to drawing the portrait?

People, even babies, are innately drawn to faces, to other people. People are all around us and portraiture is a way to explore the people who are meaningful to us. Drawing friends and family is a way for me to get to know people better, on a different level.

5. What do the symbols that you use in the shadows of your subjects mean to you? Where do they come from?

I never thought of them as symbols before, but I suppose they are a sort of personal symbology. I always referred to them as just shapes—they’re organic, intuitive blocks of color. I don’t think about the symbols when I begin, just blocks of shadow and density. The shape and density of the shadow determine the symbols as I draw.

I always had trouble in school with shading—I actually have bad eyesight, and shades of grey/mid-tones are not something I readily see without my glasses! Strong dark and light shapes appeal to me, so I looked to the native art of the Pacific Northwest coastal region, New Zealand’s Maori tattoos, and other indigenous art forms as an alternative to shading. It was a whole new way to think about color and space. It’s also a truer representation of how I see!


6. What is the role of the artist in our society? and in New Mexico?

Artists, people, have a responsibility to their communities to inspire, teach, connect, motivate, change…be a part of something bigger. New Mexico, especially the city of Santa Fe, has a reputation as being a center for the arts when it really functions more as an island—or series of islands. Artists need to integrate more into the life and beat of the city, rather than isolating themselves from whole sections of New Mexico’s geography, ethnography, and demography!

7. Where do you see yourself as an artist in 5 years?

With a degree in art therapy, helping kids explore through art in hospital/doctors’ office settings. Extended or chronic illnesses are devastating to children. They isolate you. Art is one way to connect and express.
8. What are your ultimate goals as an artist?

Do something good.



9. What does art mean to you?

Art is how we experience the mysterious, and everything is mysterious. It’s a way to make sense of the world—interior, and exterior. It’s a way to see. A way if life. It’s everything all in one.