WICKWIRE - "... where the heart finds art."

Meet Ann DerGara

I cannot remember my life without art. As far back as I can remember, I was drawing, and after age eleven, painting. My father, being southern and from the mountains, did not object to the amount of time I s OP- Artist Ann DerGara

pent doing this, but did not understand. My mother and her European family, being a creative bunch, encouraged me from the start. In the beginning, it was the place and things that I interpreted.

As I studied art in college, I began to see things differently and began to abstract and express feelings instead. Since I had no formal training in painting, I was constantly learning and experimenting. I became interested in all things I could do with a brush, knife, or anything that I could lay paint on to a surface.

I discovered printmaking in 1978 and took a 5 week etching course. Later, on my own, I learned collagraph, serigraph, lithograph, monoprint and monotype. Experimenting, again, seemed to be such a challenge just as it was in painting. Later, I created my own type of plates. With no one to ever say “no, that’s not the correct way,” I just proceeded through my own hoops.

Having two children to care for made me learn a lot . . . and quickly. I loved what I did and never wanted to trade for another profession. I soon learned how big the art world was . . . and I always believed there was a place for me. Most of my work has expressed, abstractly, what was going on in my life. The titles always told the story. Later, I began to write my thoughts on my work as a part of the paintings and prints.

As my children grew up and went on with their lives, I yearned to return to the place of my childhood. This has been my second wind. As I work, today, in the forest on the side of a mountain . . . again the place becomes the influence. Every day is an inspiration. Every day, there is something to capture – to put down – to record and, of course, there is no one to say “no, not that way.” It is the passion that drives me to do what I do. How sad to have no passions.

Ann DerGara is proudly represented by WICKWIRE fine art/folk art, Hendersonville, North Carolina.

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