Anita loves to create artwork dealing with relationships. Relationships that are expressed between a person and child, pet, or surrounding environment. Anita loves to paint portraits. It doesn't matter to her if it is a person or an animal. Both subjects are so filled with life's energy and longings, they are inspiring to capture that essence that makes those individuals unique.
A special type of portrait that Anita does is called "portrait of the spirit". In this type of portrait, there is no attempt to make the figure represented to look like the person. This is a spiritual portrait that deals with what power animals that person has. These portraits are most often done in pastels, as this media is more immediate and very expressive.
Anita has been drawing all her life. Some of her earliest memories are of drawing. She was greatly blessed to have a very talented grandfather who would critique her work, but never touch her work. He wanted her to make all of the changes necessary to fix it herself. After all, what better way to learn? As a child, Anita won summer art scholarships to study with the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, North Dakota. Anita has been doing commissions since 1973.
Anita graduated from the Moorhead Area Technical College in Commercial Art, various seminars dealing with art, from painting, colored pencil portraits, porcelain, porcelain dolls, fiber arts, children's book writing, and sculptural representations of the spirit. Anita also graduated from the Minnesota University of Moorhead with a B.A. in Fine Arts.
When Anita accepts commissions for portraits, she likes to be able to do a photographic session with ther person(s), animal(s) or combinations thereof. This way she gets first hand impressions of personality, spirit, and relationships. These things help to make the portraits much more intimate and the essence reaches out to the heart. When a photographic session is unable to be done, she works from photos sent to her. She asks many questions about the subject to help her get a feel for it (them). To do "portraits of the spirit", she does a journey or meditation for the person, unless if the person already knows what their power animals are and can tell her about them.
Chris and his family moved to Minnesota, MN in 1993, living near Bemidji, MN for fourteen years. They then moved to Eden Prairie when Chris graduated in the spring of 2008. He will then attend the U of M, Morris in the fall of 2008.
Chris has been writing since he was a child and completed his first short story, A Change By Fate, when he was fourteen. He then wrote The Face On Mars and is currently writing its sequel/prequel The Face On Mars: The Rise of Syracuse. Chris also plans to re-write A Change By Fate when he is finished with his second novel. He draws influence from many things, including some of his favorite authors Stephen King, J.R.R. Tolkien, Eric Nylund, J.K. Rowling, and H.G. Wells.
Chris has appeared on local news stations, newspapers, radio, and has held two successful book signings for The Face On Mars in Bemidji, MN. He plans on more book signings for The Face On Mars in the twin cities over the summer of 2008.
If you have any questions for Chris, you can email him at: chris.mahr@hotmail.com or visit www.thefom.net.