ANNE FARLEY GAINES –
Artist's statement
I have been an artist for over 40 years. Having grown up in the country in South
Haven, Michigan, likely made nature my central theme for a long time. The Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago is where I have lived since 1980, however. In recent years, imagery and influence from these surroundings have infiltrated my paintings, drawings, mixed-media works, and folding screens, even though nature remains predominant. Some works have included views of my 1875
Victorian home from unusual angles. In
2006 and 2008, I received CAAP grants to produce two
different series of works – “Lessons from a House” and “Pilsen Homes and Gardens." I
sometimes used a shaped, 3-dimensional surface for surprise, variety, and humor. Producing these series was a significant way
of dealing with the fact that my home has been a money pit and has caused me
considerable joy and angst.
In 2010, I ventured into painting on ceramic tile, and in 2011, I incorporated shaped ceramic tile into my mixed-media works. This
was concurrent to a large mural commission, "Treasures of Palos Heights,"
completed for that city with the assistance of my sculptor-husband, Geoffrey
Novelli, in paint, ceramic, and mosaic. Collaborative
murals are a large part of what I now do, such as the 72'x26’ mural I completed
for San Jose Obrero Mission, a women's shelter in Little Village, in 2013. Having
been in a very troubled marriage earlier in my life, bonding with the shelter
participants and painting with them helped me feel the completion of a
circle and put the past behind.
My most recent mural was completed in several
parts, in paint and mosaic. It was tit"ed
“Abunda"ce,” and I collaborated with eight Public Art students I taught while a
visiting faculty member at Principia College during the fall semester of 2014. The subject matter was the nature of the region – birds in particular – plus
Mississippi River imagery, livestock, and distant bluffs and fields. The
completed panels, all using cement board that I spent endless hours cutting as
a substrate for the students to paint and add detail in mosaic clusters, were affixed to a large building in Alton, IL, and dedicated by the
Mayor. The doing of this mural coincided
with the sad events in Ferguson, Missouri, of a police officer shooting a young
man multiple times before killing him. One section of the "Abundance" mural was
what I termed the "Elijah Lovejoy" section. He was an Abolitionist journalist whose press was located in Alton in
the 1830s. At that time, Missouri was leaning toward becoming a slave state. Lovejoy was eventually murdered for his unpopular views, and his press was destroyed
at the same time. The lives of some of his
employees were lost then as well. I
incorporated the Elijah Lovejoy memorial of an angel on top of a pillar in the
design, with two African-American and two white students at the base of the
memorial picking and sorting plums on one side together and picking and sorting
apples on the other, a gentle symbol of racial harmony and solidarity.
In addition to exploring the spontaneity of
plein-air painting whenever I have had a chance to venture out into the light
and engage with stimulating subject matter, portraiture is an important genre to
me. It helps keep my own soul alive as I look into another's eyes. This love of portraiture has been very
advantageous to my mural projects. I relish painting people I know well,
several times painting them non-commissioned for the sake of painting
them.
In 2002, there was a mass exodus of
artists from the East Pilsen neighborhood as rents rose. Saddened by this, I created a series of portraits of neighbors and friends, several of whom were artists, and installed the
work at a neighborhood café. It helped
to fill a growing void. Because of this unstoppable quality of empathy I seem
to have, and try to infuse into my artwork, I was very moved to do a portrait
of a young male victim of gun violence for the exhibition, "Faces Not
Forgotten." His name is Tony McCoy. I
ultimately hope that it makes a very positive difference in the life of his
mother, whose loss is unimaginable.
.
