Joseph Tunic Red


Flow of River

Annelies Dykgraaf

primary medium: Wood block print

additional media: Acrylic

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contact info:

http://theanneliesdykgraaf.com
http://amd-visions.blogspot.com

Annelies M. Dykgraaf was born in Nigeria, West Africa and spent her first eighteen years in rural areas where her parents live and work as missionaries and teachers. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a minor in French, from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. Annelies studied during her Junior year on full scholarship with the Cleveland Institute of Art in Lacoste, France.

She is a founding member of The Art Center Cooperative and also a founding member of JCAAA (Jacksonville Consortium of African American Artists.) She served as their first secretary for four years. She is on the board of the Beaches Fine Arts Series as the Visual Artists Coordinator. In June 2008, Annelies was awarded an Art Ventures grant from the Community Foundation in Jacksonville.

Annelies is accomplished in acrylics and oils, but her medium of choice is woodblock print. Her work largely portrays people and recounts images/stories of her life in Nigeria. Often incorporated into her reliefs are drawing motifs from the tradition of wood carvings, textile patterns, uli motifs and symbols from various West African tribal folk tales/myths. She has adopted the symbol of the lizard into her own work, which represents good luck in the forms of a protective spirit, protector to unborn children, fertility symbol, household tranquility, being plentiful, and wisdom (Ibo, Dogon, Barnum, Babanki, Avadi and Egyptian cultures).