BIOGRAPHY:
Although born in South Carolina, Annette Hassell moved to Louisiana when she was four years old, and grew up in the wonderfully spooky city of New Orleans. While the other kids were running around outside in the fresh air, Annette spent her time huddled inside, first reading and then trying to illustrate the stories that she loved-from Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm , Howard Pyle and other chroniclers of the fantastic and imaginative.
Annette attended the University of New Orleans and graduated with a B.A., after which she immediately began work as a Mardi Gras float painter-not exactly what she had in mind but a fun, interesting way to pay the bills nonetheless.
During this time, she worked on her own paintings here and there, but didn't really decide what it was that she wanted to paint until she moved to Los Angeles, in 1996. There, she started painting and showing the still lifes and other work that she does today.
In 2007, Annette Hassell moved home to New Orleans, but now, in 2011, finds herself once again living in sunny Los Angeles.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT:
As a child, I fell in love with the work of classic illustrators of children's literature like Rackham, Detmold, Dulac, Nielsen, and Tenniel. They put faces to the characters that I loved in all the old stories. As I got older, my tastes changed, and I became much more interested in paintings-particularly those of the Pre-Raphaelites and the Victorians, and the Surrealists-and in painting objects and textures that felt more solid.
So now I tell my own stories-through my paintings- and I try to infuse them with personality, mood, atmosphere and meaning.
I love that my work can evoke widely different reactions in people-from an amused, warm and fond nostalgia, to uneasy recollections of vaguely remembered childhood fears-just like those wonderful, magical stories from my childhood used to do.
MY WORK HAS APPEARED IN:
"Vicious, Delicious, and Ambitious 20th Century Women Artists"
a Schiffer Design Book
“Weirdo Noir”
Chronicle Books
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
The Tart Gallery, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Perihelion Arts, Phoenix, Arizona
Copro Nason Gallery, Culver City, CA
LAL Summer Open, Lexington , Kentucky
Varnish Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Bluespace Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Art Prize, Grand Rapids, Michigan
The Big Top Gallery, New Orleans, LA.
Spirit Gallery, New London, CT
