Ann Buss Art

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I make paintings for people who want to feel something move them when they look at what's hanging on their walls. They want some passion to stir, even if it's a quiet one, or even if they can't put it into words. Thick paint and texture and strong brush marks and colors lead you deep into the works. People have said this is soothing even when the images are exciting, I think because you are momentarily lifted out of this workaday world and toward your spirt that lives and breathes in a different plasma. 

Some of the work I like best are do-overs: a failed painting that I use as a base and then completely change. So now I never throw away a painting that didn't work out. When I go to give an old thing a new face, I leave pieces of the underneath material showing. So it's a kind of map of the journey it took to make it. There's so many layers and it's like a trail of marks to follow on a visual and mental journey. So you can look at these a long long time and return to them, and each time you will see something a little different.

It's been a process to find my way in making a painting. A huge part of that journey was the thing that got me going on it. The story is that I was busy (very) raising 5 kids with my husband and wondering what I wanted to be when I grew up. At a friend's advice I read The Artist's Way Course (by Julia Cameron) and found out I wanted to go back to my roots and be the artist I was as a child, and never mind that English Degree (sorry, Dad). I'm still a wanderer, looking in windows at other people, watching the rest of the world, not entirely sure where I fit in and trying to figure it all out. But I have my brushes in hand. 

For my training, the best thing that happened to me was moving to South Africa in 2000 and finding teachers and mentors there. I wish I could make everyone feel as good and as free as I started to be when I moved paint around on paper and canvas.

In addition to working to open doors for other creatives by teaching the Artist's Way principles,  I've taught art to children and to adults in SA and in the US.  I have exhibted numerous times in the three countries I've lived in and won awards in Juried Shows.

Thank you for reading this, and I hope the work helps you know you're alive by making you feel.