Artist Statement & Self-Portrait

du jour

Self-Exposed

Ten years ago, I watched my beautiful mamma die.

She was sick in the hospital and not getting any better. I knew she wanted, more than anything, to be in her home, not in a hospital, not in assisted living, not anywhere but in her beloved home. So I wouldn’t let her stay a day longer in the hospital. I arranged for the hospital bed to be moved immediately into her living room. I opened the drapes and let the sunlight shine through. I crawled into her bed and cuddled with her.

For her final five days on earth, I invited friends over to sing to her and we surrounded her bed with music, plants, crystals, and photos of her sister, parents, and son, who I told her would meet her on the other side. “They’re planning a big party for your arrival.”

She smiled so wide, so giddy. It was her last smile.

I’m glad it was such a good one.

mom 🫶🏼

After she passed, for reasons I may never fully understand, I started to paint. I’ve been a lifelong creator, an actor, a writer, but the visual arts were not something I thought much about. But something happened to me in her absence. This feeling felt like an otherworldly push into creating art. I guess when I could no longer talk to her, I started talking to the canvas.

About artist statements:

I love writing artist statements. I enjoy being an artist. I enjoy statements. So naturally, I enjoy writing artist statements. I’ve written a gazillion (more or less) of them. Writing these statements keeps me aware of what I care about at the time of the writing. It’s like I’m declaring to myself and to all who read it, This is me now.

I had this thought:

You don’t have to be an artist to write a statement. Just a human being with thoughts, wants, contradictions, ideas as to why you do the things you do in your world.

Maybe my statement will inspire you to write one for yourself. A Self Statement. Not to define yourself, but to meet yourself. To pause long enough to witness the shape of your becoming. To name what matters, before the world names it for you.

Anyway… this is me now.

Artist Statement
I’m interested in finding sparks like fireflies,

the magic, the mess, the can’t-quite-explain-it excitements of life.

Each day, my curiosity meets a canvas, and the canvas invites me:

to tango a thought
to howl at a loon
to curtsy the absurd
to tickle a fancy /to wink at madness
to gossip with a ghost
to braid a worry /to kiss a wonder/to fight a fear/ for flick a fraud

to be here now

And I always accept the invitation.

As a Los Angeles native, I’ve always been surrounded by a strange mix of grit, glitter, and glorious contradictions. That energy seeps into everything I create. My paintings are layered, textured, and a bit unruly. I work in all sorts of media: ink, acrylic, printmaking, photography, charcoal, spray paint, crayons, markers, pencils, pens, clay, oil, oil sticks, whatever lets me dive in, get my hands dirty, and feel something. Every mark I make is a moment, a pause, a “is this something?”

I’m fascinated by the human experience. Especially our inner lives, the vulnerability, the wonder, the grief, the laughs, the not-having-it-all-figured-out-ness of it all. Faces and figures often emerge in my work, sometimes on purpose, sometimes they invite themselves in like a sruprise, like they’re peeking through, asking to be seen. I like to think of them as my guides.

I want my art to speak, to nudge, to jolt something alive in the viewer—a memory, a question, a longing, a love. I believe art should make you feel more connected, to yourself, to others, to the beautiful wowness of being alive.

My work is personal. I was inspired to create after the passing of my mom, as if it were a call from above. It’s my expression of what it is to be me, how it feels to be a woman, to be a human-person-being in this wild, wild, wild world, in this very particular time.

I’m an IMperfectionist.

Like Leonard Cohen said,

There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.

Making art is how I make sense of things.
Or at least how I enjoy the nonsense of it all.

To become a collector and learn more, please feel free to visit anniewood.com and see what I’ve been up to.

And feel free to reply to this email if you’d like. I love to know you’re out there reading. It makes me happy. 😃