ARTIST STATEMENT
Women are treated as Marionettes and every few decades we need to fight and remind the world that we are not just dummies waiting to be led. We have come so far as women, yet we are still being controlled by false beliefs and what society deems appropriate and inappropriate.
Women VS The Puppeteer is a representation of Roe VS. Wade, with all of the freedoms that we as the modern-day woman are privy to. The one thing that is still threatened every day is our right to make choices regarding our own bodies and our sexual health.
I am inspired by everything around me. My paintings and prints reflect my emotions, my experiences, my beliefs, and the way that I interpret them. The theme in most of my work deal with issues that we as people experience, the way we question ourselves, and the burdens we carry. I love the use of color and being able to recreate the picture the way it is in my mind. I use different mediums to recreate my work, such as acrylic and gouache on canvas because the colors are so vibrant. I love art and like food for the body I need art to feed my soul. Expressing myself through my art helps me deal with my disability by pouring my pain into my work. This takes my mind off of my illnesses and the chaos they create in my life. I believe in showing my children that there are healthy ways to release life’s pain and struggles and deal with mental health issues.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mildred Annani Mercado started painting with an old box of oil pastels that her father was going to throw out when she was 14 years old; she asked if she could have them and couldn’t stop. She is Puerto Rican and was born and raised on the south side of Chicago where she lives with her family.
Annani is a mixed media Artist, Beekeeper, spoken word Poet, and was a Chef for 26 years. After 12 years of being misdiagnosed and treated for Arthritis, she was properly diagnosed in 2018 with Fibromyalgia and Crohn’s Disease. As with most women, she promised herself to not lose herself once she started a family, but life happened and eventually, she took a step away from her art for a little more than 10 years while she raised her children. She decided to go back to school and earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. During this time, she began backyard beekeeping and began creating again, realizing that like food for the body, she needed art to feed her soul!
Annani works with acrylics, gouache, oil pastels and has recently fallen in love with Linocut printmaking; with the process and how distinctively raw each print comes out.
© Mildred Annani Mercado