Anita was raised in a small town (Kelowna) where her family worked the land in a modern-day co-op for her grandmothers five children and their families.
She grew up farming and playing in the woods, creating spaces out of fallen tree branches and weaving them into walls for forts.
Here she is today, back to the childhood spent in the woods, reconnecting to the land, only this time weaving brushstrokes across a canvas, creating connections to the land and its creatures with paint.
“My work is a compilation of seemingly random strokes, a story woven out of paint. It is a creation out of nothing, gestural strokes, marks on a canvas. It has morphed into the angles and assertions of larger brush strokes that define spaces. In both landscapes and animal paintings, these brushstrokes break up the images, forcing you to address the idea of a slice of reality, or a breaking of the linear plane. Each plane seeking a stable path to weave together with what exists around it. I see this fracturing as representative of a changing environment. A seemingly quiet moment is broken up by disappearing elements or marks of light, as if we are drifting in and out of a storm, or a “splash” that may or may not have happened. This to me represents the fragile nature of the scene you are observing. I am painting the intersection between the ideal and the future.
"I have recently discovered that while we have the capability to re-make ourselves for all outward appearances, our artistic voices will only sing when we embrace who we are; I am an emotional painter, deeply connected to the land and its creatures. I paint from the heart and invite you to connect with me through my art”.