annaDART

Written by Lon Levin

Anna Dart is a multifaceted and a largely self-taught artist who promotes ecological, climatic and social sustainability as well as mental health.

Emerged as an artist in Barcelona, Anna Dart was approached by numerous galleries, various international fashion magazines and art festivals; her works can be found in private collections of celebrities.

Now Anna Dart travels around the world with her base and representatives in Zürich, Barcelona and London.

She plants trees and does charity.

When did you first think about art as something you wanted to be involved with? Were you encouraged or discouraged by family, friends, teachers, mentors?

My childhood proceeded with a lucid calm, at a measured quiet tempo. Curtains billowing while I rested upon my bed, playing Beethoven, the collection of butterflies I unleashed around the bedroom, being enamoured with my first brushes I won due to some art competitions, me lying back into the flowers upon receipt of a cherished letter from someone dear. My family would talk a lot about the sky, travelling, and I used to read Antoine de Exupery. My mom would paint on wood in red, yellow and black sophisticated birds and create gorgeous compositions of dry and fresh flowers. I remember myself longing to become a dancer, but I was a sick child. So I painted, read the books with illustrations sparkled with candlelight and did some pirouettes in the living room. Once being 7-8 I would draw with my colorful pencils right before New Year’s Eve bell-ringing, at the last moment, because somehow I felt the importance, almost a weight of creating to be able to freeze the time. The day without a painting is a day without a date.

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What kind of kid were you? Where did you grow ? What were your influences?

Being a kid, I had that lightness, grace in my blond almost white curls and seriousness in my eyes. Adults loved me and the teachers strictly demanded from me more than from other kids. A perfect mix of naivety and maturity beyond the years. Looking back, I want to believe that I lived a romance with the possibilities within me, the future before me, and the joy of being alive. I tied up my hair, threw off the childlike clothes, and put on a modish dress and my mom’s pearls. I imagined how one day I will shine in Paris and London. These cities embodied my wildest dreams. The lack of refinement in surroundings lent a sense of authenticity. I used to listen to the sounds of silence, the rustle of clothing, the bird songs. My granny had a breathtaking garden where the apples happily grew. I have never seen more red apples in my life. I adored going to the art school, placing the easel on the floor with the butterflies in my stomach, hanging on it the piece of virgin paper which was probably bigger than me in size. Once my teacher seeing me sick said that I must fall in love... she paused deliberately... with a tree. With the time, I understood what she meant.

How has your background played a part in your career?

I immersed myself in the flowers and in beautiful words. I recreated on paper the nature with tenderness and poetic truth. I learned to be honestly enchanted with little things and be alert with the daily miracles. Some galactical chain of coincidences brought me into La Pedrera House by Gaudí (1906-1912), where my heart is and will ever be. I have been on a date with the genius for more than 5 years. Living him, loving him, missing him, touching him, breathing in his magic. The sensuality of Gaudí’s work is undeniable. So when people keep asking me where the unlimited sensuality of my work comes from? I can easily say, architecture, my environment, those ceiling, the chimneys of the big outrageous crazy master.

How did your interests evolve into working on erotic subject matter? And why did you choose to use black and white for such passionate work?

I never painted anything erotic (laughs) Sensual yes. My relation with the black watercolour started when my family faced a petty tangle of money worries.

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It was the only medium I could afford. That particular black color which produced those grey and blue shadows as if it was a burn out photo gave me something that I could not find in words. The words require so much precision and as Bulgakov said in one his novels “the manuscripts do not burn.” What I love about watercolour is that it is free, accidental and unbounded like the Space. And the grey color so empathetic, non-judgmental and noble. It meets my craving for sophistication. Regarding the subject I think I simply respond to the pulse of the audience. Recently I was asked to paint animals with the eyes of humans. I will see.

The digital image seems to be more important each day. The millenials are already living in the future, they were born with the social media. I would love to ask the millenials for some recommendation and see the world through their eyes.

It is impressive how quick things are now, the rate at which things change and become trendy or not trendy. To stay relevant I have to actively invite myself to evolve. Never change what I am about, stay within that framework, but see what else I can do to meet the New World we are living in. I learn about crypto art and tokenization, I learn what the Clubhouse is and how to implement my knowledge of aesthetics and filming to help brands to stand out from the crowd working in “Iloveher Studio” we have recently launched. My team and I want to make the visual presence of companies a piece of art.

I am longing to help people to connect with their desirable future through emotions of love and abundance, having my art in front of them when they wake up in the morning and go to sleep. I hope that people will remember me first for my light, rather then for my art though. I want to exhale the extraordinary

What do you recommend to younger artists/art directors who are just developing their portfolios? How do you stay up to date on styles/process outside of your projects?

The less empowering thing to hear, for any artist are the words like: there was something very perfect at your early art works. I invite the artists and art directors to keep the enthusiasm throughout their career and life. I would

You do different styles and designs. What motivates that? What is your favorite area to work in?

I came up with the idea of questioning the fact that watercolours still have such a bad reputation among the art-collectors’ world. I keep creating a lot in watercolor, during 100 days of quarantine in Barcelona I produced up to 100 works of art.

I even did an open air art show over the fences of the park to cheer my neighbors with the bright colors of my acrylics and the uplifting message “Everything will be alright”. Some canvases were stolen, the one with the words “Alright” as well. It’s not the first time this happened. It even happened at the Yoga Festival in Barcelona where I show-cased. It makes me sad, yes, but it also makes me be reminded that my art is living its own life as if it never belonged to me, but to my muses. I found three ways of letting the paintings manifest their own nature:

First, by letting them go after the purchasing. They travel alone to far-away Alaska or somewhere in Australia and I loose the track cause in the galleries they almost never provide me with the names of the art-collectors.

Second, by creating a story even before the art-work is done and the world sees it. I remember working at the Grey Colour project (#Grises) back in 2016, a very dear project in which I asked friends, strangers, art experts, poets, writers what the color Grey evoked in them.

Third, by making paintings time travel. Almost like a graffiti, my art happens to appear in the unusual places around the world: over the trunks of the oldest trees in the middle of giant Swiss forest, at the glass of the luxurious bloody red Mercedes-Benz 500K of 1936 at the Stuttgart Museum, next to Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in Neue Pinakothek in Munich. Last summer I solo-travelled for two weeks and visited 12 cities in a row and the day of my birthday I spread hundreds of my paintings with delicate rose petals over the ancient stage of the great Ancient Theatre of Fourvière, Lyon. I like to think that I shake the timelines and rush into the impossible by doing this sort of live performances. I register this with my Iphone camera and share online.

I really like to interact with the surroundings, I like to interact with the world. There is so much life out there. And so my art is a mere invitation to leave my den.

“When you are passionate about something, you do everything in your power to master and perfect it.”

Can you explain “I am” Do you see the words and art existing only together or do they also work apart?

Words are powerful. I like to polish the titles of my paintings as much as the images. I go to great lengths to ensure that my writing standard is as high as the standard of my painting. I like to do written storytelling as much as visual. One of the latest shows I did was during “Zürich Art Weekend 2020” in some private vintage art space with an invited musician of Bolshoi Theater, Alexander Boldachev and a talented dancer Aceko. As soon as the visitors opened the marvellous door, handle they passed from one room to another. They discovered the beautiful art over the ceiling, the walls, opening cupboards, windows, even the fridge, followed by piano music and movement. They were guided by little messages popping here and there over the furnitures, the plants leaves, diverse objects inviting the spectators for a play, self introspective and daydreaming. There was a “Turn me on” message written over the light switcher, “Do you want to know” at the door handl, “Eye contact” at the mirror. I was beyond excited seeing so many shining eyes that night. I even celebrated it with a glass of... deep grey watercolour. My intention is to do more of this, for example at the wedding ceremonies: some elegant touching art together with the poetic titles guarantees a great impact.

What’s going on in your head when you work on a piece/series? Your fears, anticipation, confidence, etc. How do you know something is finished?

Travel is an intrinsic part of my life. If the patterns inform your character, then I am a traveler through and through. “Paris in One Day”, “London in Two Days” - we all have read once of those articles for travellers. Similar to dropping to a new place, I use to finish art pieces the day I started it, letting each scene unspool evenly. Sometimes it takes me 12 hrs per day or even more (when it comes to the acrylic works on big canvases) and so I cry at the end of the day. Sometimes I needed to finish the work, because at 4 a.m. I had to take a flight, otherwise I would be late.

One of my most famous acrylic paintings “California” I made after my first visit to Zürich and Lucern and when I caught a heavy cold. As soon as I landed I was guaranteed by a doctor a full day of rest and the obligations which tore me apart had to wait. In-between my burning bed, easel and the low velvet female voice singing “All the leaves are brown...” on my headphones, I created something that I could comprehend only the days after. “California” is one of my best pieces and if not the fever I would not know how I technically brought her to life. Large sized figurative-abstract piece respresenting a vulnerable female gaze as if someone called the woman’s name and it was not the person she waited for. There is a question in her eyes and the multiple colors which form her naked shoulders, bare neck and the windy backgroud are shivering like the fragile buttefly wings. I reproduced “California” as a beautiful art print of the limited edition. I donated one with the secret message on the back side to the “Art for children, Switzerland” auction, where I was invited last November. “California” became one of two most popular pieces and saved some children’s lives. The funds raised went to the local hospitals to provide infants and teenagers with art and music therapy.

Who if anyone influences your work?

I am doing a lot of cultural nomading. I visit and get involved in multiple museum projects. I mostly look to photographers and artists for inspiration and meet people from different backgrounds. I do not know any painters who would go so much after the dancers and learn their vocabulary. The “El Greco” festival in Barcelona is my favourite drug. All that is my personal research on the human heart and beauty. That is the most important part of my artistic process, which mostly happens away from my studio. Covid-19 interrupted my drama and dance studies. As an art-performer, I undertake the performance training based on a Stanislasvkij method in Barcelona. One of my mentors used to say “Fight until the death for your idea, the smallest it may seem”. This positioning helps me not to trash / burn / sink most of my paintings (laughs).

I’m curious about how you choose your performance art? Do you record the performance or does it only work live?

My interest in performing arts is mainly focused on multidisciplinary projects which aim to cross-pollinate the disciplines of visual arts with contemporary dance, music, poetry. I initiate amazing collaborations to create site specific works for the local and international artvenues making the viewers experiment their senses in all its potential and let the paintings have a voice and a movement. I never really record the performances of this kind because I act myself. I do not ask someone else to record simply because I like the idea that dance/drama is the most eco-friendly form of art. It is done and it is gone. I went to Wuppertal, Germany to see the performance of my friend dancer Pau Aran who danced for the last time with the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch company and I did that because I knew I will never be able to do it again. I could see the show recorded but it will never be the same. I searched for the bus and could not find it, I had my travelling bag on my shoulders finding my seat, I was tired etc. At the end I was there for my friend and to live the moment.