New exhibit to open at museum
May 5—The Plains Indians & Pioneers Museum is presenting "Lost in the Woods," an art exhibit from Amber Anderson, Larry K Hill Studio's gallery director, from May 6-27, with an artist reception going from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on May 6.
"There's a lot of floral and fauna pieces and then there's a little bit of figurative work," Anderson said when discussing the upcoming exhibit.
Anderson's artwork has been heavily influenced by her upbringing in Prague, where her grandmother lived.
"My grandmother, Jerry Aylor, was an artist also and she would be painting and drawing and she would encourage me to do the same," Anderson said.
When she was young Anderson would go exploring the woods and the creek that surrounded her grandmother's house. Her work typically involving flora, entomology and the relationship between life and death.
"With the passing of my daughter and my son's cancer journey a lot of grief and turmoil is something that I myself have faced, and so a lot of my newer work is surrounding the the concept of life and death and their interconnectedness," Anderson said.
Anderson describes how her more recent works feature what she calls 'grief symbology' "People who have lost tend to collect imagery that brings them some kind of closure," she said, her daughter's being Lily of the Valley, her birth flowers. Anything to do with Magpies and Magnolia.
"I think with figurative works people will receive that kind of emotional information through the visual context of the painting," Anderson said.
