ABOUT/CONTACT

email: jannauary@gmail.com

(818) 398-9673

Artist Statement

I'm a painter and sculptor. Mostly painting these days, I layer acrylics and mixed media to create rich tapestries of texture and color. My intuitive abstract compositions are inspired by my dream states, my waking states, and most often that state in between. 

For my sculptures, I work with "chicken wire" to create life size figurative sculptures. The inherent qualities of the wire enable me to make lightweight pieces that are both form and space--there and not there. Whether they stand alone, or are part of mixed media works, my figures allow air and light to move through and play with them.

I believe that creative work done with intention and awareness of frequency is important work, especially in these times, and is impactful far beyond our personal spheres in ways we may not fully understand.  

My hope is that my artwork, and the loving joyful, and grateful energy with which it is created, will bring you a smile, some inspiration, or a moment of contemplation. 

​

-Anna Marie January 

email: jannauary@gmail.com

(818) 398-9673

Contact/About

Welcome and thank you for visiting my site. My name is Anna Marie January. 

I'm a mixed media artist, originally from Southern California, now living in Nevada.  

I paint and sculpt. (See Artist Statement.) 

Mostly self-taught, I have been creative all of my life, whether I was drawing, painting, dancing, writing, designing interiors or making costumes. 

In the mid to late 2000's I decided to take some interior design courses at my local community college. Along the way I discovered a passion for drawing and sculpting the figure (in clay) while studying with the incredibly talented California based artist and professor Cynthia Minet. 

It was in one of her classes in 2010 that I began working with the wire.  I was first inspired to pair a painting with a wire sculpture in 2014.

I have work in private collections across California, including in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Northridge, Pacific Palisades, Pasadena, Sacramento, Thousand Oaks, Woodland Hills, The Bay Area, Santa Barbara and San Diego.

A third generation Californian on my mother's side, I was born in East Los Angeles at The Japanese Hospital in Boyle Heights.  I spent much of my early childhood in the backseat of our car (without a seatbelt) as we traveled back and forth across the United States for my mother's work as an entertainer.  

The Japanese Hospital, which was established in response to the discrimination immigrant and American born Japanese experienced in the early 20th century, had developed a reputation for providing excellent care and serving a diverse population. 

My parents, who were an interracial couple at a time when it was illegal for them, as an African American man and a white woman of Swedish and German descent, to be married in several states due to anti-miscegenation laws, felt more welcome there.  

A biracial "illegal" child, 

born in the Japanese Hospital, 

named after a Chinese woman from Shanghai who moved to San Francisco, often lovingly cared for by my Mexican American aunt, and then by 

my Jewish foster family, while my children are half Greek! 

These are some of the foundational threads that have created the tapestry of me.

 As the French say "L’ennui naquit un jour de l’uniformité." Boredom was born, one day, out of uniformity.

People often remark that I've led a very unconventional life at times. It's true that I DO have some stories to tell...

Most importantly, I am a mother to my two beloved children. One walks the earth, amazing me with her strength, courage, wisdom and beauty every single day. The other is in spirit. He is dearly loved and missed, and most certainly watching over us.   

~Anna Marie January

​​​​​​​​​​​​​Exhibition History​​​​​​​​​

2020 realART , Group Exhibition curated by Sylvia White, 28873 Agoura Road, Agoura Hills, CA

2017 Seeing Blue, Gallery25N, Virtual Online Group Exhibition

2016   Light Play, Group Exhibition, ​Blue Line Arts, Roseville, CA

2015 Buenaventura Art Association's 29th Annual Open Competition, Juried Exhibition, Juror Linda Kemp, Buenaventura Gallery, Ventura, CA

2015 My Sunset Woman Plays Guitar, Temporary Public Art, Malibu Guitar Festival, Malibu, CA

2014 Clothing Optional, Juried Exhibition, Juror David Elder, Second Place and People's Choice Winner, Studio Channel Islands Art Center Blackboard Gallery, Camarillo, CA 

2014 Planet, curated by Cynthia Minet, Group Exhibition, Moorpark College Art Gallery, Moorpark, CA​

​2014   Anna Marie January: The Spaces 

Between, Solo Exhibition, Pink Flamingo Gallery, Moorpark College, Moorpark, CA

2014 Ventura County Government Center Show, Group Show, Administration Building, Fourth Floor, Ventura, CA 

2013 The Bride: For Edith, Temporary Public Art, Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA

2013  Buenaventura Art Association's 27th Annual Open Competition, Juried Exhibition, juror Katrina McElroy, Buenaventura Gallery,  Ventura, CA  

2012​  ​Group Exhibition, Moorpark College Art Gallery, Moorpark, CA

2012 Group Exhibition, Studio Channel Islands Art Center, Camarillo, CA