Anastasia Scala is from Western Australia and currently resides there but has travelled and studied art around the world. She completed her undergraduate studies at the Pratt Institute in New York City, where she studied Illustration. Then she went on to practice illustration and portraiture in London, where her fascination with museums and history really took hold. Upon returning to Australia, Anastasia completed a Master of Arts at Curtin University, producing a body of work surrounding the myth of Medusa and how her iconography has been used throughout the history of art. She has exhibited in several local exhibitions and online. Recently she completed a course in Museum Studies and Cultural Heritage at Deakin University and continues her work tying history, culture and art together in her paintings.

My art practice is built around the tradition of storytelling that is inherent to humanity, adding to the tradition with my own art. Primarily I use painting and drawing techniques to do this, occasionally branching out into other mediums as needed. My art employs an expressionistic use of colour and symbology to reference various themes and narratives, often utilising the human figure. For me, one of the joys of painting is how the agency of the artist is evident in the work. It is possible to trace the artist’s process through brush strokes and imperfections, forming a connection between artist and audience. I want my choices to be obvious in my paintings, from the application of thick paint to vibrant colours selected to assault the viewer’s senses.

In recent years, my goal has been to evoke both empathy and a sense of stories being passed on through generations in my paintings. To do this, I often incorporate history and mythology into my paintings, to create connections between myself and historical artists. Research outside of painting is therefore an important aspect of my practice. I engage in a lot of reading and writing to broaden my understanding. This process lets the audience feel connected to audiences of the past and makes distant figures from history and mythology feel relevant to contemporary life.

Working from so many historical sources can mean that my inspiration comes from people with very different experiences than my own. I do aim to explore how my own identity as a queer woman in the 21^st century can be depicted through fantastical art and my body of work, bringing contemporary relevance and my own artist subjectivity. I also try to incorporate unique experiences from my travels as well to aid in this.

 www.AnastasiaScala.com

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