Anna 

Editor: We’re looking at "Anna," a painting by Fernanda Suarez. I get a cheerful feeling from this, a sense of someone who knows how to bring warmth to a snowy landscape. What do you make of it? Curator: It makes me smile, actually! It feels like a knowing wink to a popular fairytale, doesn't it? A bit like seeing a famous face on the street in everyday clothes. I’m also struck by the tension in the setting; the softness and color against the crisp background create such an unexpected depth. I imagine this is exactly what Suarez was trying to accomplish. What does her treatment of the composition tell us, do you think? Editor: That's a great way to put it, that tension gives the image life! Well, there's the very modern-day clothing, juxtaposed against this familiar scene...Almost like she's asking what these familiar stories and faces can tell us about our current life, the life outside fairy tales. Curator: Precisely! And the painterly treatment lends her a romantic softness even within this stark contrast. The work seems so familiar, but yet I have no sense of precisely where the character "ends," and Suarez begins; in some sense they co-exist in this scene. You might even ask, "What does Anna herself see in Suarez"? The conversation of the work comes alive in these playful ironies, doesn't it? Editor: Absolutely, that contrast feels so significant. Thanks for helping me notice so many different things in it! Curator: My pleasure! There is real joy to be found here, that's for certain!