Anna Weiss.
Three Portraits.
2017-2019.
Bo Derek, Patch Johnny and Elvis.
Signed, dated and titled.
Crayon and mixed media on paper.
Each is 11” x 14”.
Est. $100-300. Ship: $35

ARTIST ANNA WEISS

Self -taught artist Anna (aka Dianne) Agnes Hallenen Weiss, was born 1933, in Windham Vermont to Estonian immigrant farmers.
As a young artist she drew and painted landscapes and animals copied from photographs found in the Saturday Evening Post, National Geographic and other magazines.
Hollywood fan magazines were also a source of inspiration as she collected movie star pin-ups decorating the walls of her bedroom with the likes of Lauren Bacall, Rosalind Russel, Lucille Ball, Clark Gable, and Van Johnson.
At 18 she married a former professional boxing champion and lived in the Bronx.
They eventually moved to Miami where they raised two sons and Anna worked with her husband at their photo studio where she hand colored black and white portraits.
At middle age she endured a sudden mental breakdown and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Being heavily medicated for years with anti-psychotic drugs prevented her from succumbing to catatonic prayer vigils and trances.
Her art making ceased prior to and during this time.
It wasn't until she eventually improved and was weaned off those meds that she returned to art, and at age 80 began drawing with an entirely new vision and heightened passion.
She revisited her adolescent obsession with celebrities by doing their portraits working from memory or photos rendering her favorites such as Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Tom Jones, Princess Diana, and Barbara Streisand.
Family and childhood memories are also go to subjects.
Her frequently used mediums include pencil, felt tip markers, pen, and watercolor which she combines with abandon often pairing text and image in an effort to reclaim her history or the history of others.
If she isn't drawing, or watching vintage Hollywood films, she collects jokes and tells them to any captive audience she can corral using her self- dubbed stage names, Anna Banana or Dirty Gerty.
Her love of life, and fearless positive outlook comes through in her work and is a testament to her identity as a survivor.
According to Anna, "I'm a Van Gogh in a female body."