Erica by Anne Luther
BAGS:Portraits
by Anne Luther
Maggi by Anne Luther
_______________________________
Bags
will be on view at Frameworks, Caruso Woods Fine Art Gallery, through
April 30th. 20% of the artist proceeds will be donated to Girls Inc.
of Greater Santa Barbara. Frameworks is located at 131 East De La Guerra
St. For more information call (805) 965-1812.
WHILE
PORTRAITS OF WOMEN often
try to capture the elusive beauty of clear skin, a sensual curve, or the
flash of an eye, occasionally a portrait reaches deeper - to the very
spirit of the woman it embodies.
Anne
Luther's Bags...You Are What You Carry at Frameworks/Caruso Woods
Gallery is such an instance. The 26 tastefully arranged bags, created,
found, and assembled by Luther, mark the lives of 26 women - both real
(several represent live Santa Barbara women and others, women from around
the world) and imaginary - that populate Luther's inner landscape.
Find
there the famous and the unknown. "Viewers have an opportunity to
learn about the
sitter, not in the usualway
of studying the face, the
Anne
Luther's Bags...You Are What You Carry at Frameworks/Caruso Woods
Gallery is such an instance. The 26 tastefully arranged bags, created,
found, and assembled by Luther, mark the lives of 26 women - both real
(several represent live Santa Barbara women and others, women from around
the world) and imaginary - that populate Luther's inner landscape.Find
there the famous and the unknown. "Viewers have an opportunity to
learn about the
sitter, not in the usualway
of studying the face, the
surroundings, the dress or undress," Luther explained, "but through a representational assemblage hand bag."
Anne
Luther studied art at a New York City's Parson School of design, New York
University and at the Taos Institute of Art. A member of the Santa Barbara
Art Association, her award winning work has been featured in numerous
galleries, solo and juried group exhibitions. Anne has received private
commissions as well as commercial ones and is the recipient of the John
Profant Foundation's Michelangelo Award. Her work in in several private
collections. She is the past President of the Santa Barbara Visual Arts
Alliance and is a current trustee of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.| "When
my mother died, she left me very few material things. A woman who's
mantra was "out with the old and in with the new" erased
my past and discarded the talismans of my childhood in her attempt
to be "modern".Shortly
after her death I purchased a vintage alligator had bag, in a local
antique shop. It was identical to the one my mother carried when
I was a child. Too young to have my own, I marveled at the mysteries
of this grown up accessory and the contents hidden inside. Outwardly
it was a symbol of all that she was, fashionable, chic and rich.
Inside was her own secret life.I
began to search for items which formed that internal secret life,
a gold compact, a Revlon lipstick, a jeweled encrusted pillbox filled
with tiny white tablets, a silk handkerchief embroidered with my
mother's initial, and a letter she always carried and which, later
in my life, I imagined was from a secret lover. Along the way I
came to understand the importance a handbag plays in a woman's life.
This simple act of creating a shrine to my mother, turned into a
two year journey of discovery.-
Anne Luther... |
|
