Bio:
Amy Kollar Anderson was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, IL. She feels fortunate to be raised in a supportive household that encouraged artistic creation and to attend a high school that offered Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Ceramics, Metal Smithing, Photography and Advanced Art. It was at Barrington High School that she experimented with numerous art forms/materials and where she met her future husband, Mark.
After graduation, she attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. During her time at SAIC, she was called a “Jack-of-all-Trades and a Master-of-None” by one of her professors. This did not discourage her from learning and experimenting with various art forms and continuing to paint, whether enrolled in a painting class or in a sculpture class. She never clicked with the painting department at SAIC, but continued to experiment, research and improve her painting skills on her own.
Once she left SAIC with a BFA she moved with Mark to Dayton, OH and began learning graphic design from the books he brought home from work. After several years of working in the graphic design profession, she went back to school to earn a Master of Humanity with a focus in Fine Art, from Wright State University. With her new degree she was able to obtain the position of Adult Arts Coordinator at the Rosewood Arts Centre in Kettering, OH. Her knowledge of multiple medias made her ideal for the position. After several years at Rosewood, the Gallery Coordinator position became available and Amy applied for it and was accepted. This part-time position allows her time to create and promote her own work, while meeting amazing artists from all over the world. During this time she also taught classes at Clark State Community College, The Dayton Art Institute and Antioch College. When she isn’t teaching, Amy enjoys sharing her knowledge with young art students and encourages them to discover their own artistic voices.
Currently, she is focusing her attention on creating her paintings using the techniques and skills she learned from her years of playing around with the different mediums. Her inspirations come from her trips to the pattern chaos of the thrift stores, the personalities of her three nephews and four cats, and her strange, but inspirational dreams.
Statement:
I find comfort in chaos. My studio, filled with an excessive assortment of oddities, is where I am most comfortable. It is my world-within-a-world; where patterned rugs lay overlapping on the floor, costumed mannequins observe from the corner, brocade fabrics hang from my easel, plastic-encased bugs refract light in the window and magazine clippings overlap on striped walls. The juxtaposition of objects and images helps me create new narratives or conjure the memories and dreams that inspire my paintings. The images capture this juxtaposition by appearing simultaneously vintage, yet modern, and beautiful, yet disturbing. I focus on themes of obsession, contrast, containment and control.
Recently, I have been covering the objects in my paintings with obsessive patterning. I take the patterned elements, then combine, contrast and overlap them to create the visual illusion of a space that is simultaneously voluminous and flat, in order to push the boundaries between structure and chaos. The patterns are inspired by Arabesque design, Art Nouveau decorative elements and free-form graffiti.
In the terrarium series, the children live in a world-within-a-world, where they interact with the world around them, but they are separated by positive or negative environments. The juxtaposition of the interior and exterior environments act as a starting point for addressing child welfare and environmental issues, while allowing me to experiment on how patterns interact in a space. The terrariums also reference Japanese Zen gardens and the suburbs where I live, because they are both forms of controlled and contained nature. The terrariums also become portable mini-studios that allow me to bring the comfort of my studio wherever I venture.
