Anna Polistuk

There is this space inside, that we visit in dreams, visions, and deep meditations, that is the most truthful and satisfying part of our experience of self. It's like touching our soul, our own wildness, our connection to the divine. Though that world feels in-between, surreal, dreamlike, I believe it is the larger reality. My work is about that mystical space.

I explore psychedelic and visionary states with plant medicine, fasting, ritual, ceremony and trance. Those experiences are the inspiration of my artwork. I paint from memory of experiences, as well as during altered or enhanced states. I work intuitively (paint without planning what the painting will be), and allow the piece to form organically. I use elements of colour, shape, and movement to evolve and express the vibrant-dreamlike-surreal experiences. I see my work as experiments in communication and I am working with the idea that maybe I can create pieces that can help a person be transported into the expanded state of being, where when your in it, you are surrounded by the peace and calm of knowing that nothing else matters but being alive.
Most of the time our connection to that larger mystical space is fleeting, an ethereal memory just beyond our grasp. But those ...

Anna Polistuk is a visual artist based in Toronto, Canada. Her work is informed by her study of states of consciousness and visionary experiences. After studying psychology and anthropology at The University of Western Ontario, she has spent the last decade training in meditation, yoga, hypnosis, trance, and plant and elemental based folk practices, while also spending months each year in the parks and wild spaces of North America. She works with the human interaction with wilderness and how it informs our visionary states and sense of self. Along the way, she has also studied Set and Costume Design at the National Theatre School of Canada and Photography and Film Production at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University).