THE HISTORIC SANTA FE FOUNDATION PRESENTS
ANNA BOOTH
New Works
Opening December 1, 2017
Continues through January 2, 2018
The exhibition Anna Booth: New Works opens at El Zaguán, 545 Canyon Road, Suite 2, on Friday, December 1, 2017 from 5-7pm and continues through January 2, 2018.
Anna Booth Artist Statement:
This current body of work began about ten years ago in New York, before I moved to New Mexico. I’ve always been interested in how a calligraphic line can express emotion and personality, which then intertwines with the meaning of the words. I fell in love with my first fountain pen as a 9-year-old in a Swiss Waldorf school, then studied calligraphy as a teenager, and loved my early cursive penmanship exercises. Although mostly obscured to the viewer, I start with a phrase or word, chosen to help me focus in the present moment, then repeat and layer it. That thought, phrase, or word is my point of departure.
As a resident at El Zaguán, I’m also made aware of how the layers in my work describe the joining of past and present. The splatters of paint on my studio floor give a picture of the people who were here before me, experiences they may have had and artwork they may have created. Lately I have been looking through old family documents dating back as early as 1806, and I am captivated by the emotion I can see within the curves of the lines that suggest the movement of the hand that made it, written by people who in some way live within me. It is that subtle gesture which can describe a unique and authentic voice that interests me, rooted in the moment of creation yet connecting visually through time. This is what I hope to convey in these drawings and paintings.
Anna Booth Biography:
Anna’s painting practice has its roots in her early Waldorf education in New York. Regular wet-into-wet watercolor painting beginning in Kindergarten, with simple color palettes, were a chance to dive into color, and to express the form and beauty of the natural world.
A mathematician father, who vividly described the fourth dimension over dinner, a mother who closely studied plants, older siblings all adept at sketching what they saw and imagined, a primary teacher who actively worked at honing her artistic skills, were all early influences along an artistic path that was never a question, always a given.
In 2010, Anna moved from Brooklyn NY to Northern New Mexico, where the landscape, quality of light, and rich history inspire her work. She graduated with an Associates Degree in Fine Arts, from Munson Williams Proctor Institute, and holds a BFA in Painting from Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn, NY. Anna has handled and helped to produce artworks, from Phillips Auction House in NYC, to Landfall Press in Santa Fe. She is pleased to currently be a resident at El Zaguan, the Historic Santa Fe Foundation, on Canyon Road in Santa Fe.