My personal experiences and influences
Rainer Maria Rilke
once said: "one has to absorb all one is sensitive to, the feeling about nature, a different time , the feeling about people, and what they do to each other, the world, the sky, the sea and make it one's own. So it becomes one's own blood, and then put it back into a verse". I will say:.."put it back in a painting".
So all the work
comes from what you are, what you
are made of, your personal experience.
and if the work is whole, it will
hopefully transcend you and become
part of the broader human experience.
Born in Brussels,
Belgium, I was raised
in a small country,
crossroad of European history from
the Roman times onwards, rich in
cultural and art history. My roots
go deep into that land and are always
with me. It is there that I spent
my childhood roaming the flat lands
and wide beaches
of the coast of the North Sea. It
is there that I nurtured my love
of the natural world, wide open
spaces and the infinity of horizons.
As a small child, I also witnessed
the fears and destruction of WWII.
These experiences have resurfaced
in my art, exploring the emotional
memories and sense of loss pervading
crumbling walls and sheared houses.
They also resulted in many works
on violence and its aftermath.
As
a young adult, I came to live in
the United States. I became an American
citizen, continued my artistic education,
became a mother
and a professional artist. For many
years I expressed in semi abstract,
textured landscapes and collages,
the beauty of the nature around
me: in particular the land of the
Piedmont of Virginia, where I live,
as well as my passion for vast arid
lands and deserts, where I traveled.
In the late 80's I visited several
mediterranean countries. The overwhelming
historical and physical connections
to the past that I experienced in
those countries as well as my personal
roots in a very
old culture, led to new directions
in my art and to the creation of
a continuing series of works exploring
the transformative effects of the
passage of time on the natural world
and our human presence: the beauty
of the natural layers of patina
but also the layers of ancient cultures,
of our creativeness, our destructiveness.
And now, as technology, information
noise and virtual reality envelops
us, I also feel an urgent necessity
to express our fundamental need
to remain rooted in the organic
reality of our world, as well as
our need for silence and a sense
of the infinite mystery that is
still part of the human condition.
These experiences and passions that
have molded me have surfaced in
my art as broad
themes that I have constantly revisited
as my work has evolved and matured.
I revisit them because they are
part of what I am.
VIOLENCE... . guns, knivesgrenades, rockets spewing rain of nails and fire men, women, children torn, charred blown bodies buried lives victims of wars genocide, tortures victories and defeats victims of power and fear and greed got to have it all nobody will push me around gotta survive I am bigger and better than you are you’re nothing you’re bad got a knife a gun a rocket a tank want a father a mother a home, a family want to play and work and love and sleep in the warm sun and the light air you will I will we will survive and love and understand and bury The VIOLENCE From the poem "Violence" Anne Slaughter, 1993 |
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LOST WRITINGSthe imprint of a hand the marks we make the past our impermanence a continued exploration Writings became part of my work, when many years ago, I started creating mixed media expressions of the passage of time, our transience and the different forms that memory can take. I became more intrigued with the act of handwriting as I reread many old letters from family and friends. I was struck by the depth and individuality of expression in the detailing of events, lives, and emotions. The letters became scarcer as the telephone and computer took over as our daily communication tools. One can, then, imagine that the writing of letters and the richness of relating that they represented, might become obsolete and slide into our cultural past. Anne Slaughter, 2001 |
VESTIGES"They were here…They were gone…They were somewhere in time... Layers of civilization, traces of man’s creativity, Markings of time and the elements on the natural world I have always had a deep affinity for the textures, colors, and forms created by the passage of time. Whether I hold a smooth rock in my hand, marvel at a desert cliff, or wander in ancient ruins, it always reminds me that there are forces greater than we are and that puts our everyday lives in a different perspective. Anne Slaughter, 1990 |