ES-Urban Grid #78 Print

Anna Carll was born in 1960 in Charleston, WV, into a large German-American family with five other siblings and raised in Sarasota, FL. In 1984, Carll received her BA from the University of Florida, then moved to Atlanta, GA, where she lived and worked for 16 years. Carll now makes her home in Chattanooga, TN. Carll began her career as an illustrator and graphic designer, with a strong background in art history. In 1992, Carll began private study with the late painter Ouida Canaday who was co-founder of the Atlanta Piedmont Arts Festival. Canaday was a contemporary of the Atlanta artist, Joe Perrin. In 1999, Carll quit the graphic design industry to become a full-time painter. From that point onward she evolved as a self-taught artist. Carll’s main influences are Picasso, Matisse, Lee Krasner, Gerhard Richter & Pat Steir. THE EROSION SERIES The Erosion Series is about seeing the beauty in the natural event of decay and building an aesthetic around it. Like the Japanese wabi-sabi; the acceptance of transience and imperfection—I repurpose and create new life out of past work or begin anew on fresh panels or paper. Inside the studio and out, observing the natural decay of the life cycle has made me appreciate that within reduction the more possibility there will be. ABSTRACT PAINTINGS As I quietly paint, I have both decisive moments and an earnest, listening eye. In the midst of this what occurs is nuance, serendipity, intuitive associations, chaos, and reduction. Working with abstraction allows me to explore the boundaries between positive and negative space, the use of unusual textures and the mixing of different media. I begin this work flat while adding and subtracting subtle and intense color as well as exploring various types of heavy texture. I allow the water based media to flow and puddle in the valley’s of marks and textures that were first laid down, enhancing the interaction with paint, inks or collaged hand-made papers gradually adding multiple layers that begin to form the foundation of the urban grids, urban collages, and urban botanicals. Once color and chaos is achieved across the surface, the pieces then go up on my painting wall where I begin the reduction process. I am fascinated with the push/pull of creating civilizations and nature taking them back.