Anisette Studio

Life____ Me.

I will skip my life as a farm wife because this is about me the artist. I have always been the observer, even as the child keenly seeing what is there before me. This was true of both people and my surroundings. My interest went into what was hidden from view such as what is under grass or hidden in the moss or tree bark on a tree. I found worlds there! Hidden away yet full of life! I felt the energy of everything! I still hate shoes! I would rather feel my imagined roots that anchor me. I would rather hear the heartbeat of all organic life, the animals___ I would rather feel the world outside. Yet much of my life has been inside, no longer is this my desire. Life needs to be about how to change things up! Now to incorporate myself into what I do, art or writing. How to give of the self and make a difference through art and writing!

My Approach to living life as an artist and writer.

My vision? Is to continue helping the world to heal mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. I believe I have much to offer. Now it is just me! The love of my life died in 2020. Thomas was my biggest fan, my supporter of “Whatever you want to do! I know you can do it! You’re the engineer!” He would tell me. I love creating things and following through with it. Something I did not do earlier in life although I wanted very much to pull things off! You could say life got in the way, I let it because I did not empower myself. I did not know how. So, I am inspired to help some along the way. I had little to know support for who I wanted to become. I was the first to go to college in my family unit. I found a way to do it and I grabbed onto the chance. To think I was just looking for a job!

When Thomas died from his heart simply stopping. He had had heart surgery in 2014 to put a valve in his heart. He had been an avid swimmer, hiker, skier with a great love of outdoors. He was never bothered and never knew about his heart. He had worked on the Maine Turnpike. I met him at the University of Southern Maine, going for his BFA and we became good friends during printmaking classes. After my divorce I stay in the area, and Thomas and dated and married. I had planned to never marry again. Love, God or Cupid I had found my soul mate, the love of my life! We were married from August 1989 to his death in September 2020. Poof and he was gone! I took time to be present and think about what I wanted life to become now I was single. I had bever been single, only between the two marriages. I had married right after graduating high school as way too many do.

For me changing life up in new ways became my goal. My rules were to use colors I had not, to do things I had not and those things I had wanted to do. I reasoned if I was single minded now, I should finally focus on me, the me I had not tried out before. I would continue with developing Shibu and work on children’s books and poetry, write so that it would improve. I would work on my health, mental, physical and emotional, and find my spirituality. This takes up a lot of time! That and being a grandmother. My life feels full. I miss being a part of a couple of course but at this point? I want to focus on me for a while and become. SO! I sold our home and moved closer to my daughter and her family. This is good! Everything is new.

At this point in time ( 3/9/2025) It has been 4 years since Thomas died. And I have changed life up. My new studio is a cottage studio. I am moving forward with writing the Shibui Manual, and I am doing other forms of art. These mediums are soft pastels, watercolor, acrylic paint and oil pastels. There was a time when I did not like the results I had with oil pastels. I thought I would try again. I have four new canvas boards to use! So it seems I like the oil pastels much better!