John Seed: Anne Harris: "They start with me..."

Artist Anne Harris has built her reputation as a painter of women who transfix their viewers with projections of uncomfortable and uncanny emotional states. Each of her paintings is a paradox, a challenge, a chimera, and to some degree a self-portrait.
"They start with me -- often -- and are from me in some respect," Harris explains, "but in the end, they become themselves. They're portraits of the people in the paintings." The resulting "people" are born from the artist's discomfort.
"I am incredibly self conscious," says Harris, "I am not a comfortable person." Although Harris, who recently turned 50, can be self-deprecating, her point has to be taken seriously. Her paintings are, in some way or another, about her struggle to get to the root of the anxiety while also attempting to shield herself from it. They tend to take their viewers on quite a ride.

Read More...
More on Painting