Today we’d like to introduce you to Anne Royer.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
From an early age, my teacher and mentor, Gustav Likan, instilled in me the desire to create beauty through color and form, regardless of the subject matter. I was introduced to Likan when I was six and began studying in his adult classes at the Art School at Laguna Gloria in Austin, Texas. Mr. Likan was my mentor until his death in 1998, and his daring work as a colorist continues to inspire me. My work also reflects the influence of traditional Japanese art and aesthetics, which I encountered during an extended stay in Japan. I studied fine arts at Austin College (Sherman, TX), and theological aesthetics and art history during graduate studies at Yale University (New Haven, CT). I moved back to Texas and began teaching studio art in McKinney in 1997. In 2010, my friends and I founded a new arts non-profit, Arts and Music Guild, which has greatly expanded the opportunities for artists, musicians and young people in McKinney. I volunteer as the director of the Guild, and oversee one of its programs, a cooperative venue for creatives called The Cove, located in downtown McKinney. There I join over 40 artists in showing my work during weekend exhibits. Our lively arts community in McKinney draws participants from surrounding cities and supports my incessant need to think visually.
Please tell us about your art.
Several lines of inquiry thread through my work: music, artistic collaboration, an emphasis on color composition, and over 30 years of work in the design industry.
My mother was a classically trained musician and teacher. She trained me as well, but I chose to paint professionally and sing vocationally. I did not realize the depth of the connection between music and the act of painting until I was in college. One night, I immersed myself in Faure’s Requiem, and found myself painting a Madonna and Child on a 6′ x 4′ canvas. Years later, I experienced the same transport when I painted spontaneously at a live jazz concert. Since then, I’ve painted at several live music events, both classical and jazz. The musicians love seeing their music take form in color and movement; the audiences enjoy the added visual element; and I — well, I’m just deliciously lost in the flow of creative collaboration.
In the northeast and in Dallas, I have worked with interior designers and architects for 30 years. Great clients want something they have never seen before and trust me with their open minds. I listen for where they’ve been, what they’ve experienced, and how they want to live in a space. Generally, there emerges a question or problem that my art will answer or solve. I then choose the colors and the medium in which I’ll work to answer that question, solve that problem. Always the unique assets of the medium and support (canvas, paper, ceiling, wall, etc.) are a critical component in any project, and the design industry taught me this.
For example, last year I had a show in a gallery in Florida. Solving the problem of easily transporting a large enough body of work to fill an entire gallery became the start of my experiments with natural forms from my garden, the gorgeous colors of the aerosol Plutonium ™ on Yugo ™, a synthetic paper that comes in thirty-foot rolls. I explored and “pushed” the medium into delicate transparent layers, all the time working to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for thematic continuity and energy. When it came time to fly to Florida, I handily packed sixty linear feet of art in two rolls in my suitcase. Problem solved. The colors, the forms, the entire long dialogue with the medium and music was thrilling for me.
Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
It has been difficult to find a balance between work for others and work for myself. I am glad for the flexibility that working for others has taught me. I am glad to have poured so much energy into my students. And now I am glad to have returned to painting for me, as well.
I have had to earn a living through my art since I was in college. Certainly, selling my work and teaching has given me great confidence in myself as an artist. And then, it hasn’t. There are all the little negative voices that come from critical clients and times of low sales. There are seasons when I am so absorbed in the aesthetics of others that I’ve lost my own vision. Trying to paint for the “market” at festivals or in consignment galleries has knocked the wind out of me. I finally stopped painting to the “market” when I realized that at The Cove I can show what I want and not have to sell it to justify it. Now I paint for my eyes first, even in the commissions that I accept. I don’t know if I could have arrived at this point earlier — but I’m here now.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
www.AnneRoyer.com My website is primarily organized according to solo exhibits, because that shows where my mind is going. I am careful to include narrative on the website, particularly for my most recent solo exhibit, The Seasons Sacred, because the colors and forms are theologically charged.
www.TheCoveMcKinney.com I always have work at The Cove, which opens with a new exhibit every weekend. My room is on the back on the left side. Sometimes it’s a staging area for my next installation. The altarpiece that began with the Madonna and Child to the Faure Requiem is there, getting ready to be installed in its liturgical home, finally! In that room there is also a trio of pieces on the theme of healing, collaborations with my colleagues Pernie Fallon and Charles Esser. My next solo show at The Cove is in September.
Facebook: AnneRoyerArtist My Facebook page is dedicated entirely to the arts in McKinney, including information about my upcoming shows or new work that I am willing to share on Facebook. Mostly I want people to support the artists and musicians in McKinney — to support them is to support me.
Contact Info:
- Address: The Cove 402 N. Tennessee
McKinney, Texas 75069 - Website: www.AnneRoyer.com
- Phone: 214-679-1124
- Email: sar312@sbcglobal.net
- Facebook: anneroyerartist
- Other: www.thecovemckinney.com
Image Credit:
Personal photo: Brad Sharp
Lovers in front of The Four Seasons, and Opening Reception of Seasons Sacred: L.C. Tobey
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
