I was born in Kansas and moved to Southern California with my family as a child. My interest in making art started when I was very young - I created a world with my art and wanted to keep that as I grew so I always drew and painted. As a young adult I spent time living in New York City and Northern Arizona which were both inspirational and educational places to be as I learned more about creating. In N.Y.C. I enjoyed looking at the works of artists I had admired as a young person, such as Klee, Georgia O'Keefe DeKooning and Kandinsky and the Fauves. Later I was influenced by the Native American cultures in Arizona and spent a considerable amount of time exploring ancient ruins, local arts and crafts and the desert landscape. Since 1979 I have lived and worked in Anacortes, Washington where again the influence of place has shaped much of my work as a painter. My work is often a direct reaction to the landscape I live in or my travels to new places. Sometimes I use symbols of the land but in a simplified way exploring shape and color more than a specific explanatory picture. I am looking for emotion and the spirit of paint more than exactitude. My work has always had a core of origin in color. Color often comes first for me before the composition is beginning to form. My process is highly intuitive. The more abstract pieces often have a basis in landscape but I am looking more deeply into the subconscious expressive images that want to come. I have spent many years developing skills with various media - experimenting often and trying to follow my feelings to a deeper level. After I learn how materials work I feel that one of the main things I have to do is get out of the way and let the nature of the work come without a lot of thinking. The paintings seem to talk to me once the first colors are put down and they tell me what is needed if I listen well. I rarely plan images although I do tend to work in series with one piece leading to the next. I love the physical part of painting - the textures and markings in surfaces. I have been fortunate to travel and gather more impressions to work with, from things such as ancient walls in France or pine-fired pottery in Japan. I am currently working primarily with oil paint in both stick and tube form on canvas. I have also been working on some black and white pieces - the contrast between the intensity of color and the drawing like paintings is of great interest to me at this time. There is a freedom of gesture and a different texture with Japanese papers and Sumi-ink. I enjoy the play between them. My work continually changes but there are shapes, symbols, colors and textures which circle around again and again and feel like part of my visual language. Anne Martin McCool