Anna Hergert
~ Calgary, Alberta Canada

Anna Hergert works in mixed media with a primary focus on textiles, as fabrics and threads have played an important roll in her life since early childhood while growing up in Europe. She is passionate about combining the unexpected with conventional techniques, as well as manmade and natural materials. It is Anna’s goal to bring an element of surprise to each piece to capture the viewer’s attention.To encourage further investigation of her work she strives to incorporate multiple layers of fabric and stitch.The result is three dimensional wall art.

Ms. Hergert takes inspiration from her environment, historical research and current events. She captures this inspiration in various forms, which include sketching in pencil, charcoal and pastels, a camera and lists of descriptive words. Eventually this information is translated into fabrics and threads with the help of smaller samples before embarking on the final piece. Anna works primarily with her own hand-dyed fabrics and threads, and whenever possible incorporates common hardware store finds, such as nuts, bolts, washers, copper and steel pipe. Her most recent work has grown out of a study of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, the late Austrian artist/architect, and his lifelong attempt to abolish straight lines as they "...lead to the downfall of humanity...". Anna has recognized how much her past has been influenced by perfect geometric shapes and lines.This has lead her to successfully combine the personal struggle of “not to color outside the picture” with Hundertwasser’s free thinking philosophy by creating pieces that connect color, undulating lines and dimensionality resulting in one of a kind pieces.