Young Saint, Old Devil Painting

Anna Jensen is a 37-year-old artist from Atlanta, GA. After stints in many eclectic cities, she moved from Brooklyn, NY to Asheville, NC in 2009. Her ‘psychological landscapes and emotionally complex narratives’ in acrylics, glitter, and oil stick remind of the humor and pathos previously mastered by great expressionists and later manifested by pop artists. A brief look at her paintings makes you relate with her autobiographical revelations that find a space and setting with masks, music, booze, nostalgia, nudity, etc. These elements make her work vivid and piercing. The titles of her canvases are apt and amusing- mostly self-explanatory and poetic at times. Anna’s paintings have been featured in many print and online magazines as well as in exhibitions and galleries all over the US. “I combine references to art history, pop culture, natural science and personal chronicles to represent the conflicts of life. Like me the stories are at once funny and sad. I’d say that my personality is definitely reflected in my work in that I gravitate toward combining humor and darkness, charm and indelicacy… a refined nature within or including moments of extreme mess. I guess I find comfort in reflecting what I am experiencing in life: the most awful tragedies and atrocities surround us while simultaneous majesty of nature and human kindness occur. And I find humor in so much of civilized existence. Life is very funny. People are absurd: our habits and hang-ups, everyone’s kooky personalities. Especially those who think they are the most normal. But, people of all walks/types respond to my paintings… which I love! The squarest of squares and the freakiest of freaks; creative expression brings us all together to relate. It’s bigger than one person.”