ARTIST STATEMENT
“Mother Earth” is a portrait of Patricia Jones, one of my best girlfriends through time. We met during early high school at Round-Up Ranch for Girls in Buena Vista, Colorado. Patti and I were similarly rebellious and naughty, but loved horseback and outdoor camping. Later we were both students at Principia College in Elsah, IL. We were not in the same social circles, yet similarly defied convention and followed our own paths. Patti was a drama major and I majored in studio art. Our friendship blossomed when we both moved to Chicago in our twenties. I had just completed graduate school in Ohio and Patti had left a budding career in acting and moonlighting as a waitress on roller skates in New York. She became a real estate agent, which continued for decades, and I pursued my art career from then through the present.
We often consoled each other about trials in our careers and rejoiced in each other’s triumphs. We were also each other’s confidantes about the complexities of relationships with men we were dating. Patti has purchased a number of my paintings and commissioned one of my strongest mixed-media works. Even 56 years later, Patti is one of my favorite people. She is a tempestuous, fiercely independent, adventuresome woman, afraid of nothing, and a world traveler. Some of her genuine ‘narrow escape’ stories from travels to such places as Taiwan, Costa Rica, Machu Picchu in Peru, and India would make most people’s hairs stand on end. Patti is very serious, intellectual, hysterically funny, nurturing, and deeply religious. Her friendship has been a bulwark of support. I am thankful for having taken the opportunity to paint her with background and clothing purchased on her travels. It captures her soul.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
I received a BA in Studio Art from Principia College, Elsah, Illinois in 1976 and an MFA in Painting from Bowling Green State University, Ohio, in 1980. That year I moved to Chicago and own a Victorian home in Pilsen. I’ve produced numerous nature-based paintings and murals including four 20’x12’ fabric banners in acrylic for Sara Lee, “Heartland Almanac.” My first collaborative mural was for Palos Heights, IL involving a tile border by students in 9 schools, “Treasures of Palos Heights.” When a Visiting Faculty at Principia College in 2014 my public art class produced a multi-sectioned agrarian mural near the Mississippi. In early 2016 I orchestrated a mosaic and ceramic mural with participants in Wichita Falls, Texas, with nature, landmarks, and Texas symbolism.
Recent mural works are three cement barriers, now 3-D murals, at the Maxwell Street Community Garden in Chicago created in 2020 – 2022 with youths. For this “Continuous Growth” series, I received three grants, one a 2021 Illinois Arts Program Grant from DCASE. In 2022 I became a member of Artists for Climate Awareness, promoting workshops and lectures by artists whose concern for climate change is reflected in their works. I gave ACA workshops in Bloomington, IN in summer of 2023. I attribute having lived near Lake Michigan to my passion for painting near water. My ceramics and paintings are in collections throughout the US including at Valley Hospital in New Jersey, Kalamazoo Institute of Art, Rockford Art Museum in Rockford, IL and Wichita Falls Museum of Art in Texas.
© Anna Farley Gaines