Artist
Anne Siems
Words by Katie Farley
Over the years, Anne Siems's body of work has transitioned from partly abstract, room-filling plant and creature illustrations, to images of meticulous botanical and bodily subjects on waxed paper bags, and now consists of young women and children displayed on wood panel. Woven throughout her work lays Siems's allure and admiration of life on earth, along with the association she feels to all, sentiments that are problematic to convey in words.
During the journey of discovering healing for chronic pain and fatigue, the artist has evolved her exploration in shamanism, ceremony, and the profound development that nature delivers.
Hyaena
"I work from a place that feels true to me and is not overly burdened by symbolism," explains Siems. "This leaves room for the viewer to interpret freely and to open into a deeper subconscious. I think deep inside of us lives a longing to experience a sense of 'Falling in love,' a visceral experience without words. For that to happen, this place needs to be free of irony and conceptual humor. I am looking in my work to find the point in which we feel a certain ache - the ache caused by the knowledge that life is full of light and dark, sacred and profane, beauty and ugliness, life and death."
Fire
Extinction Rebellion
Eve dreams of a Wolf
Dancer
Amid Siems's paintings, she endeavors to portray a sense of morality and sincerity to herself as much as she is able, without escaping judgment. She intends to channel honesty, tenderness and openness throughout her paintings. Throughout her works, she explores that start of something that touches the world. "It is a place where others can touch the magic and sensuality that gets exposed in the process."
Boys and Bugs
Bite
Her latest body of work revolves around tattoos. These tattoos focus on the narratives that the women in the paintings convey. "They are fables; they are mythical signs; they are rites of passages. I don't analyze them in advance. I see and feel for them and let my gut feeling direct me to place them on their flesh. This is very similar in some ways of how I depicted the lace in my older work, but now these women signal an inner wildness. As their bodies are covered in, what in reality would be many, many painful hours of tattooing, they show a side to us that is both tough and tender, invincible and vulnerable."
Beast Lover
Beast
Bear Lady
Amid her paintings, Anne Siems intends to communicate to the state of the world, how she senses it, understands it, and creates beauty with it. "Because we cannot live without beauty."