Anne Carney Raines

Region: South

City / State: Nashville, TN

My background in scenic painting has drawn me to the stage and its many layers of reality. The curtain represents a boundary between the box below: the spectator and active space. However, without actors, this boundary creates a minimal and transitional zone with the potential to explore multiple narratives. I am drawn to passages, doorways, and paintings within paintings. These motifs become places I am yearning to go but can never enter into. I have the feeling if I walk into this space, there will be another one behind it, creating a never-ending cycle.

There is an obsession with shadow in my work that has its roots in Tromp L’oeil painting. The layers of reality within the painting become hyperreal. In this way I like to embrace the lies of painting and the fabrications of theatre to build a world within the works. Currently, I am interested in ideas around collective memory, the oasis, and exterior/interior environments.