Hi, I’m Anne Wallace. I’m participating in Kirk Hopper Fine Art’s Artist Spotlight. Here are some of my highlights of the past year.
- Working on the amazing archive of photographer, Sally Brittingham, who documented my extended family’s ranch and the neighboring town, in the 1940s-1950s.
- The gathering space/public art project I created in Brackenridge Park, in 2005, has been an impromptu performance space since the beginning, but this year, it also hosted a spontaneous memorial to the children and teachers killed in Uvalde. It is a wonderful feeling when the work grows beyond the artist’s conscious design.
- Making small figurative drawings. Continuing a years-long series, Women in the News, which started because, every time I opened the newspaper, I saw images of women all over the world grieving devastating loss.
- Dreaming (literally) about picking up my chainsaw again. After years of video and public art, the physicality of direct carving is very appealing. A recent insight about my practice: I find the subtractive process especially satisfying. Experimenting with this in clay.
- Thinking about the legacy I want to leave, as an artist, human being/community member, for my family. The projects I want to get to, how best to contribute to a more just society, the relationships I want to cultivate, how I want to feel about myself in the years that remain.
UPCOMING:
- Building a studio in my backyard – an architect friend is trading her work for mine.
- This fall – a self-created residency, in Guanajuato, México, with a friend I met working there 40 years ago.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:
Traveled to places rich in history, color, and texture! Plus Spanish immersion, which I’ve been missing.
Ten days in Veracruz with marvelous friend, artist, foodie, dancer Rolando Briseño. Great food, ‘margaritas divorciadas’, danzón and salsa in the zócalo. Oldest public buildings made of “madrépora”or “múcara stone” – coral reefs, because there were no quarries nearby. Yanga, a pueblo named for the enslaved man who started a guerrilla war against the Spanish; in 1630, the successful rebellion resulted in freedom and an independent town. El Tajín archeological site. Los voladores. Tlacotalpan, birthplace of Agustín Lara.
Two weeks in Andalucía, where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived side-by-side until the reconquista. The magical Alhambra. Play of light and space. Minimal furnishings (people sat on the floor), contrasting with extensive geometric tile and carved wall decoration. Wide, North African Islamic brick ramps (good for people and horses) versus Christian narrow stone spiral staircases (a suffering ascent, in comparison). Longed to feel the worn-smooth brick floor under my bare feet. Pierced wood and stone window screens and roofs (the Nazarí and Almohade baths). 1000-year-old gardens’ hydrology still functions. Visible and audible influence on Mexican architecture and language – particularly agricultural and hydrological terms – from the colonial period forward. Most of the plants were familiar to me here in S. Texas; surprising. Tile plaque on hotel wall: “América es un continente.” The pleasure of walking through ancient cities strung along plazas; most people don’t have or need cars. Music and dancing in public spaces. I have a theory – as yet to be disproven – that, wherever you go, you will hear Mexican music at some point (The most startling example so far: a movie theater in Cairo, in 1992.). Grafitti: “Al mal tiempo buenas cumbias.”
Ten days in Barcelona. I’m a tile freak. Joined Centre Cultural Catalán de Barcelona for 30 Euros/year; they partner with a humanities institute to provide wide-ranging seminars and classes anyone can take.
LINKS:
Artist Spotlight is intended to provide updates about artists represented by Kirk Hopper Fine Art as well as other artists who have participated in past exhibitions at the gallery. Artists, poets, and writers who are featured in issues of PASSAGE: An Online Magazine of Visions and Voices will also be highlighted.
