Annie Terrazzo

My work has always been about trash. I don't think it started out of inspiration but a reaction to sheer poverty. Back in 2003, after moving to LA from a couple of other places, I didn't have the money to afford real materials. It wasn't really my intention, but using these found objects and used materials from thrift shops collectively told a story within the work. I was impressed at how people not only wanted to buy the work but also wanted to know the story. The story of the trash. I got a pretty good following and sold everything I would make as fast as I could make it. I got to the point where I could afford better material, but never really went to far in that direction. The newspapers were a natural progression of my artistic endeavors. In 2007 I traveled to London for the first time. Now, getting from Heathrow Airport to the city you need to take the tube and I came in right after morning rush hour. As I walked into the train to sit down, the floor was littered up to my knees with newspapers. Londoner's get free papers, read them on their journey and throw them on the floor of the train. I happened to be all alone on that particular tube and it's a long way into London. When I got off the train, I had a pretty good idea where things were going. I love portraiture old and new, but really wanted to find a new and interesting way to show it. Using the newspapers to tell the story or the headlines as the heart of the person I am drawing creates a fuller understanding of the subtext or the joke I'm trying to make. Since 2007, every year 3 newspapers go out of business in the US. In 2011, Newsweek magazine went digital and stopped printing. Newspapers and magazines have so drastically changed their format that they have become tabloids just trying to hold on to any gory headline for ad money. And the information has all gone digital and now everybody knows everything and nothing at the same time. It's just the weird hoarders and me collecting this stuff now and it's just a matter of time before it just isn't there anymore. Even the really old newspapers and magazines you can't find them and if you can, they aren't worth anything. I take the piss out of them, but I also have a deep appreciation for newspapers and magazines and want to preserve them in my own unique way. All of the work is covered in plastic and heat / light resistant glue. Each page is a story. Each ad tells more than I could ever paint. And I want the viewer to read my work and not just look at it. I grew up in Colorado, spending most of my time in Denver and in a small mountain town called Breckinridge. My mother was a schizophrenic in the sex industry and my father was a formula one race car driver. I grew up just about as trashy as they get, but I spent most of my childhood sitting in my room writing plays on a 1970's typewriter, drawing people and watching old movies and dreaming about Paris. My statement says as much about my work as it does about myself. There is great beauty to be found. Sometimes you have to go through the trash to find it. I think I would have rather sent a video of me masturbating and then crying than write an essay about myself. But both I think capture the essence of what I am trying to say.