Annette
Matrisciano Artist Statement
I can’t swim,
yet I am at home under the water. Being immersed is like being held. I
paint what bridges my dreams and desires: water and women, bodies flying
wingless beneath surface turbulence in a liquid world, soup of the
first things to live, stew of creation. I am obsessed
with wonders. And wondering. My eyes and ears are greedy. I am compelled
to sketch, paint, sculpt, write or photograph constantly. Oil, acrylic,
pencil or clay, my subject is the mythic female – graceful, enigmatic,
beneficent, jealous, gentle, welcoming, powerful, alluring, free. I love
a wending line, soft forms and vibrant colors. I am not a cubist.Part of my
Mermaid Raptures body of work incorporates my poetry. In the works right
now is an art book combining my mermaid diptych series and my poetry as
well as my, “Inanna’s,” mythology. My book, Inanna’s Tales of the
Mermaids, will be released in 2008. Other bodies of work include;
Aphrodite’s Dilemma, Eruptions, and Sanskrit.My quest is for
visual sensations beyond my concrete experiences. I hope my paintings
bring the viewer to a magical place of conjuring where the willing
suspension of disbelief allows the mind to play and dream in worlds that
exist within our desire for faith, mystery and myth as we seek truth
and beauty.I chose the name
Inanna to sign my Mermaid Raptures work. Inanna is the Sumerian goddess
of love and war, and I feel she represents the inimitable currents
between ebb and flow in our ultimate search.
Biography * Small eastern town -
trailer court kid; pink trailer (another story), lots of reflective
time growing up: woods, creeks, swings, a blue bike, etc.
* Got “How
To Draw Book” at age 11. Majored in art in high school, college
(rejected the suggested anatomy course for art students out of
squeamishness)
* Taught art in a junior high school in Hollywood.
Painted and sold (for damn cheap) the oils I’d do after my 8 to 3 stint
as an art teacher.
* Took a few decades off. Made three babies. This
turned out wonderfully well.
* Always translating what enters my eyes
and ears - viewing and reviewing – stampeding metaphors in my head –
jealous eyes that want to keep every image – that’s why I create and
recreate – a way to hang onto everything (Yes… I also never throw
anything away).
* Creating is a way to define and control the demons
that would have made me totally mad by now had I not given them a
healthy outlet.
* I am incurably curious about everything. If I had a
working memory, I’d have left Einstein and De Vinci in the dust long
ago. Alas.
* Born under the sign of Cancer, I overcame my dread of
water in my twenties.
* Currently living and working in Santa Barbara
– painting and mixed media.It’s incredible to be
able to do what you love in life. If I had another lifetime long, long
ago, I’m sure it was as a happy cave painter with three scruffy kids who
held hands and sang at the moon.
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