I know an artist from Brooklyn. (This is not a limerick.)

Anna is an artist from Brooklyn. Her mood makes as much an impression on her work as the work itself has on her. She begins painting because something strikes her, but the direction it goes is not yet known. Even the artist herself is unsure of what drives each artistic decision she makes, and how exactly her work will wind up, but who really cares when the result is so perfectly complex?

For as fascinated as Anna is with technology and how it interjects itself into the physical world, painting allows her to break – to turn her back to computers and repetition and lose herself completely in the spontaneous movement of brushstroke. Her graphic designs are worked and reworked. They’re dramatic and expressive, some so convoluted, they almost hypnotize. And it takes an unbelievable amount of attention and care to get them to that point. But her paintings, particularly our collection, are unplanned and raw. They're fluid and fresh in a way her digital art cannot be, simply by definition. Her paintings haven't been through the ringer a thousand times, nor can they hide behind edit. They're more organic than any other form and, personally, that mystery and honesty is what's most magnetizing.

Monochrome is a common theme in our collection. Anna’s belief is that a piece should be able to stand both in color and in black and white. In other words, it should not need color to extrude feeling. Alternatively, the use of black and white should not be an escape for an artist – it should be a conscious decision. Anna’s reason for using greys is subtlety. The use of color would undoubtedly make her own mood too obvious, and, in a world where otherwise she wears her heart on her sleeve, her artwork allows for that touch of nuance. This, perhaps, is why she paints alone, or only with one she deeply trusts in the room. There’s a vulnerability in letting someone see the emotion that goes into the work, and, for us, a charm in trying to figure that out without the hints from color. And those few pieces that do weave in color and give us a sense of what she felt while creating them - Impatience, Through the Ages, Woven - well these are symbolic and dear in a whole different way.

The collection here reminds me of waves and shadows and space and bustle. Each painting has an unbridled chaos within that provokes thought and emotion and damn, I’m no super duper art aficionado, but I know what makes me feel, and she makes me feel. And that’s her only request of us, as her viewers: Feel. Doesn’t matter what. Something. Anything. Feel.

Anna’s always had an intimate relationship with her work, particularly the pieces she can touch as they come to fruition. And when her day-to-day consists of the regularity of mainstream digital media, paint is a way for her to recapture that intimacy – the familiar intrigue that she never wants to lose.

This artist is very much like her paintings. She flows. When I think of her, wildflowers and all natural things that complement the rawness and impulse of her paintings and process come to mind. But despite the carefree vibe at first glance, there's an underlying intensity that's dramatic and entrancing - within both the work and the woman.

View the collection.