Annette Matrisciano
Artist Statement
Artist StatementI 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.
* 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.
For more about Annette, visit her webiste at www.mermaidraptures.com
Contact Sea Breeze Art Gallery for more information.
