By Ron Evans

Artist Michelle Anderst is relatively new to the area but she’s already leaving her mark on the local art community and the city itself with her intricate mural work. Anderst’s solo exhibit “Venefica medica” premieres this Friday at Collapse Gallery in downtown Wenatchee. The Comet chatted a bit with the artist on this show, her body of work and the intermingling concepts that inspire her to create.

Tell us a bit about your time, artistically speaking, in Seattle. And what brought you to the Leavenworth area.

I moved to Pioneer Square, birth-place of art walks, right out of art school from a small town in Southern Oregon with big dreams for making my way as an artist. My first art walk will forever be burned in my memory; winding through cobbled back alleys and entering the legendary 619 building, six floors of artist studios in a creaky wood 19th century building. I knew I was home. I spent the next sixteen years interweaving with every art group in all corners of the city, developing my artistic style, showing in galleries, digging deep roots and, most fondly, gathering every Wednesday night for DRAWK at the Pioneer Saloon.

I came to Leavenworth after a local kombucha company, Huney Jun, saw me live-painting at Imagine Festival on Orcas Island. I was painting a bee and they asked me to illustrate labels for their bottles. One of the owners, Ben Erdmann who is also a bee-keeper, saw my work from afar and whispered to his bees "There's another queen, and she's painting you". Our worlds merged, stars collided and he asked me to move across the mountains into our forest home. I had been yearning to be closer to nature for some time and now I am here in beautiful Wenatchee Valley.

Your work often combines geometric shapes and patterns with more organic elements, insects, animals, and nature. Talk about these recurring themes in your art.

I am an extremely curious human. My greatest pleasure in life is trying to understand both the root of things and the perspective of other creatures. Through my artwork I have discovered that geometry is the language of creation. Spending time in nature and overlaying the beautiful intelligent forms of insects, plants, gemstones and mushrooms onto the divine visual language of geometry fills me with an ecstasy beyond measure and I want to bring this insight and delight to whoever stands in front of my paintings.

One word keeps coming to my mind when looking at your work. Connectivity. Am I inferring here or is that a concept you explore with your designs?

Yes, connectivity is exactly right. I think in terms of mycelial roots. The intricate underground "root system" of fungi and the visual forms in geometry can be applied to every aspect of our existence, our invisible community ties. It is so important, especially in current times, to remember that this can be a visual representation of our human connectivity. We are all in this together.

The way you stage your pieces remind me of a graphic design sort of process. How much of the overall layout of your individual pieces come from design or an aesthetics standpoint versus sending a specific message or statement to the viewer?

I love beauty and bringing this to the viewer is the ultimate goal. It's a combination of the two elements of design and concept. Often I am drawn to a particular theme, such as the archetypes of numbers, all the different geometric patterns which can be made using a hexagon or simply the curvature or a snake, and the painting will emerge from there.

Do you call yourself a painter? Illustrator? Designer? Or is it all simply part of being an artist?

All of the above.

With the accuracy of traditional illustration I’m curious about how much time you spend sketching or planning before you even begin to paint?

I have a ritual for developing a painting. I love going to a coffee shop between the hours of noon and 3:00, ordering my coffee and my croissant, setting up at a table with sketchbook, compass, ipad and ruler, putting in my earphones and playing a playlist created specifically for this purpose, then letting it all flow into a sketch. I'll usually spend an hour or two researching and feeling into my subject (lately that of poisonous plants) selecting all of my visual references, then sketching it all into a design. When I get back to my studio I'll create a color palette with markers, colored pencils or quickly mix up some oil paint and make little color squares in the margin of the sketch.

Do you build up your pieces with sketchy underpaintings or loose passes and then tighten them up? Or is it more about constructing the actual skeleton and outline first?

Pencil drawing, underpainting, final rendering.

Your website offers many reproductions in various formats - is selling prints and other reproductions a large part of your art pursuits?

Yes, I spend about half my time making and selling prints. My original paintings sell really well but I recognize this isn't an affordable option for many folks - and as one human I can only make so many originals without burning out. Making art and beauty, a foundation for our psychological well being, widely available is very important to me and it also provides me with a living so I can make art full time.

Over the summer you have been working on a sidewalk and partial wall mural at the entrance of Salt Creek Apothecary, tell us how that project came to be and what inspired the final design?

I had the pleasure of meeting Kristen Acesta, owner of Salt Creek Apothecary, as a patient of hers. We resonate in our love and celebration of the healing medicine in plants and she wanted to include me in the community artistic vision of her new downtown space. This summer I had the pleasure of creating a walkway mural in the entryway featuring Devil's Club, Mullein Elderberry, human anatomy and, of course, geometry.

Anderst calculating the intricacies of the Salt Creek Apothecary mural in downtown Wenatchee.

Salt Creek Apothecary Mural at 28 North Wenatchee Ave. in downtown Wenatchee

Tell us about your upcoming show at Collapse Gallery in Wenatchee. What can we expect?

I'm very excited to be introduced to the Wenatchee art community through Collapse Gallery! I’ve been working hard on my show "Venefica medica" over the last few months which features five hexagonal paintings about poisonous plants. Venefica medica is latin for "poisoner/medicine". It sounds menacing at first but it is about discovering the medicine within something that, in the wrong dosage will kill you; a concept which can be applied to a variety of things like toxic relationships, alcohol, food, vaccines, venom therapy, the list goes on. One of the plants featured in my show is Foxglove. Even just a small dose is toxic, but it contains a compound which can be isolated and used by doctors as a heart medicine. These poisonous plants hold a potent place in folklore and healing throughout human history, dating all the way back to Greece and ancient Egypt.

Where can people follow you online or purchase some of your art online?

Michelleanderst.com

There will be a First Friday opening reception for “Venefica medica” Friday, November 6 from 4-9 pm and the show will be on display until December.