Let Go, Gently

Solo Exhibition and Artist Residency with Olive Green Anna, 13-21 December 2019
Reception: 21st December 5-7 pm
International Sustainable Development Studies Institute (ISDSI) 47 Chotana Road, Chang Puak, Chiang Mai

Press Release

Visiting artist, former Chiang Mai resident Anna Baer, who exhibits under the name Olive Green Anna, returns to Chiang Mai presenting an exhibition of her large, vibrant abstract paintings. Hear her journeys, inspirations and how she learns to Let Go, Gently. December 21st, 5-7 pm, ISDSI (International Sustainable Development Studies Institute), 47 Chotana Road, Chiang Mai, free

Artist Statement

Soothing white space. Waving ink-jot. Exploding topographical wombs.

Motherhood turned me, representational artist, into abstract expressionist. Losing my first baby in miscarriage exposed how little control I have. Grieving, freed me to let go and create more intuitively and improvise in the studio. Painting with a detailed plan and total control felt almost wrong to me.

In an effort to accept the wild, my practice uses spontaneous, chaotic, fluid inks and acrylics, as well as meticulous applications of pastel, spray, and oil paint. Helen Frankenthaler's color-field washes and Twombly-esque scribbly, illegible writing spill forth in my work. I write stream-of-consciousness on natural, unprimed canvas sprawled on the floor. The large, monumental canvas calls to me as it did the Ab-ex artists that went before me. My aim in the studio is to ebb and flow with the process, be present, and play with the paint, play in a serious manner, as children do.

I am artist-mother in restraint and perpetual release.