It’s a well-accepted fact that memory starts with attention—the moments we’ll remember in the future are the same ones we pay attention to today. For an artist, noticing and capturing moments—both ordinary and extraordinary—is the basis of the creative process. One artist who exemplifies this is Anna Hess, a multimedia painter based in Lutsen. Hess’s work blends the beauty of nature with the playfulness of the imagination, capturing the everyday magic of life in the north.
Hess began expressing her inner world through art from a young age, whether it was drawing in the mud with sticks or playing with fingerpaints in the bathtub. This bent toward creative expression stuck, and she went on to get a degree in studio art. After finishing her degree, Hess began her career working for a screen-printing shop before finding work at Sivertson Gallery in Grand Marais. It was this job that Hess credits to launching her career as an artist—in addition to doing framing at the gallery, she began showing her paintings there, and more and more people discovered her work.
As a painter, Hess cites two primary sources of inspiration—nature and color. After falling in love with the North Shore and making it her permanent home, Hess has devoted countless hours to exploring the region, and her time spent outdoors is a source of both peace and intrigue. Colors, Hess said, are not merely a creative tool but a language unto themselves, and can be used to express complex and hard-to-name feelings that words can’t quite capture.
“It’s easier for me to describe something with paint than to use words,” Hess said. “Painting is a way for me to put my personality on paper, and other people understand and connect with the emotions that I express through paint.”
Hess employs a variety of paints including watercolors, oils, and acrylics; occasionally, she even swirls in bits of dirt or sand that she collected from time spent outdoors. Amidst the variety of materials she uses, Hess’s art has a distinctive and congruent style, with evocative colors and vibrant, whimsical scenes that echo the magic of the natural world. Some recurring motifs in her paintings include birds, plants, and the lakes and rivers of the North Shore. As a self-described “bear-aholic,” bears make frequent appearances in Hess’s yard and subsequently make frequent appearances in her paintings.
“Bears can almost seem to talk to you with the look that they have,” Hess said. “I like watching bears, anthropomorphizing them, and painting them.”
And while the techniques and practical elements are an important part in any creation process, all art starts in the mind. Hess reflected on the role of presence and stillness in the life of an artist, and the cyclical nature of creative work; not only does an artist’s lived experience manifest in their work, but their work in turn influences their perception. In Hess’s case, her closeness with nature and the time she spends on her art shapes how she sees and interacts with the world.
“I can’t sit in an environment and not be seeing and recording,” she said. “Painting is a way for me to preserve memories—an exciting trip, a particular light, a moment in the woods. It’s a way of being aware and more present, and it makes a person more reflective when you take the time to slow down, relax, and experience each moment for what it is.”
This year, Hess used her gift for preserving memories as part of Northern Wilds’ 20th anniversary celebration. She designed a commemorative art piece featuring some favorite woodland creatures of the north, used as this issue’s cover photo. That same art piece will also be used to create t-shirts, which is available for pre-order now.
“It’s a really neat piece,” Hess said. “I’m so grateful to have my home here and to be part of this supportive community of artists. Visitors know when they come up here that they can find a variety of work from the artist community here, and I love being a part of that.”
