1. Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Annie, and I paint colorful creatures, from cute to macabre but mostly just odd. My goal is to make people laugh, or at least smile. If not that, then consternation will do. I work under the name Chaos in Color.
2. Where can people view your work?
My art prints are always available at vanAnnies.com, and the home page has a list of upcoming shows where people can see my work in person. You can get announcements about new paintings and upcoming shows via our email list.
3. How did you get your start?
My background is in programming for computer graphics, but it’s hard to get a job in that area without moving to Silicon Valley, and business programming really doesn’t do it for me. My love of computer graphics just kind of morphed over the years into digital painting, which has all of the color but none of the cubicle. I’ve been painting for about nine years now.
4. What inspires you?
Humor, cats, nature, and spooky things, especially Halloween. And color of course. I like paintings that require a little bit of thinking or observation to see what’s really going on. My favorite part of art shows is seeing how people react and hearing how they interpret my paintings. I’ve been surprised by many of their observations. I also like symbolism. Many of my paintings are either about mortality or have a “life is short” sort of message.
5. What do you like about Arizona?
Saguaros, they are super cool. I really should paint more saguaros. I also like that skeletons are popular pretty much year round. Probably the best part of the southwest for me is that there are so many native cat species – puma, bobcat, ocelot, jaguar, and jaguarundi. I wish more people understood how special that is.
6. What would you like to accomplish before you die?
I pretty much just want to live before I die, instead of wasting away. I hope that somewhere along the line my paintings will help people feel better about their own lives and whatever time they have.
7. What is your weapon of choice for the inevitable zombie apocalypse?
I will have an army of cats to fend off the undead. I am unfortunately still working on getting the cats to follow commands.
~
See more of Annie at:
