ARTIST STATEMENT
The themes in my work are inspired by everything around me. My paintings and prints are how I interpret my emotions, my experiences, and my beliefs. In this work I wanted to recreate wooden statues and masks that I found interesting, while visiting a museum during my trip to New York in 2023. I use different mediums to recreate my pictures, my favorites are printmaking with linocut, acrylics, and Kuretaki Japanese watercolors.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mildred Annani Mercado is a self-taught artist who started painting when she was 14 years old. She is Puerto Rican and was born and raised on the south side of Chicago where she currently lives with her three children. Annani is a mixed media Artist, Beekeeper, Poet, and was a Chef for 26 years. After 12 years of misdiagnoses, she was diagnosed in 2018 with Fibromyalgia and Crohn’s Disease and retired from the kitchen. Taking a step away from art for more than 10 years while raising her children, she decided to go back to school and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. During this time, she also began backyard beekeeping and creating art, realizing she needed art to feed her soul!
Expressing herself through her art, helps Annani deal with her illnesses and the chaos they have created in her life. She believes in showing her children that there are healthier ways to deal with mental health issues. Inspired by everything around her, her art reflects her experiences, emotions, and beliefs. The themes in her artwork deal with life and spirituality. She works with acrylics, Kuretake Japanese Watercolors and has recently fallen in love with the Linocut printmaking process.
© Mildred Annani Mercado