Artist Bio
Phyllis Anne (p’anne; p’anne ally) is an artist in Metropolitan KC, following work in two art studios in Northern California. She left California several years ago, but her journey started in Kansas. Discovering Toulouse-LauTrec at 12, she became fascinated by how people deal with life’s thorny challenges, eg, we are defined by what we learn with the grapple of them. She left the Midwest at 19 years old, travelling around our great country and finally the world. Leaving the art world behind, she became a master therapist in California working with people of all ages grappling with life’s dilemmas. She taught therapists world-wide in the art of change. She attributed facing similar personal dilemmas as her client’s, to the art she now creates, embracing nature’s “perfect imperfection” or wabi sabi (messy, worn and cracked but honored and still in use).
She says, “The physicality of scraping, blending, sanding, smearing, and dripping captures an emotional history and like a Rorschach, ignites a personal and particular response in the viewer.” In abstraction, her themes are reflected in pure abstraction, figurative and landscape (old walls, beaches, skies, etc). Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States, from Coastal California, the Midwest, the South and Northeast.
Thoughts. Experiences. Inspiration.
My work is inspired and informed by the past - memories, longings, states of mind and feelings. Old handmade quilts, cracked tea cups, frayed walls, worn floors, strangers walking by...inspire a deeper story. It’s personal. And vulnerable. I am compelled to create, to validate the story. It’s like there’s a primal need to record the story. A link to our ancestors, the cave dwellers.
I use artist paints, crayons, pencils, markers, house paint, charcoal, ink, graphite and collage ephemera to create and destroy the surface of the canvas over and over, again and again. Music on, I am brushing, swiping, tearing, gluing, sanding, erasing, covering. . . until the story has told itself. Like life. We go through life building and tearing down, then rebuilding. It, for me, is a natural process.
The colors I use are part of the story, sometimes soft and subdued covering over the bright and brash. Sometimes, the other way around. Reflecting the ebb and flow, the rushing forward and pulling back. It’s an act of discovery. The more successful I am in that process, the more the viewer experiences it. I’m successful for short spurts of time, until the next one. I never get it just right. I let go of perfection over and over, again and again. Telling the story doesn’t require perfection, I remind myself. Making art is a process of letting go over and over and over. Until I find a stopping place. I rest and then start all over again.
Activity, Exhibitions, Galleries
Activity:
2025
Residency, Jen Tough Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2024
Fellowship, Artist INC, Charlotte Street Org, Kansas City, MO
Exhibitions
2026
In Full View, Women Made Art, Chicago, ILL
Celebration, Resident Artist Exhibition, ZhouB Art Center, KC MO
Extinction,Save the Planet - 6th Juried Annual Exhibit, Gallerium, Canada
Craft Alliance & Art on Tap, St. Louis, MO
The Naturalist Gallery of Figurative Art Collection, Columbia District
Anything Goes, The Lab on Santa Fe, Intl Exhibit, New Mexico
Emptiness, 2026 Annual Juried Exhibition, Exhibizone Intl Canada
Fundraiser Auction, Folly Theater, KC MO
Woman - 2026 (6th Juried Annual Exhibition, E xhibizone Exhibits, Canada
Circles,Squares,Triangles, 3rd Annual Juried Exhibition; E xhibizone, Canada
Second Fridays, Open Studios, Zhou-B Art Center,KC MO
2025
Permanent Collection, Folly Theater, KCMO
BlackOut Black, Heidman Art Salon, Blackbird Collective, KCMO
Public Exhibition of The Patrons Collection; Dahm Museum of Art, Sedalia, MO
Colors of Ability, Buttonwood Art Space, KCMO
BeSpoke Wedding Event, ZhouB Art & Event Center, KCMO
Kansas City Art Coalition Auction, KCMO
Homage to the Hand Exhibit, Spirit Gallery, ZhouB Art Center KCMO
Layers, Creative Mornings, Arts Global Magazine, International
First Fridays, Open Studios, Zhou-B Art Center,KC MO
2024
A Moment in Time, Spirit Gallery, ZhouB Art Center KCMO
"MagiX", Exhibizone, (International), Canada
"Navajo", Astonish Magazine
First Fridays, Open Studios, Zhou-B Art Center, Kansas City, MO
"Existence", Exhibizone (International), Canada
"Art Unleashed", Art Mozaik Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
"Happiness", Exhibizone, (International), Canada
"Exploring Monochromatic Art", Arts Benicia, Benicia, CA
"Aqueous", Art Fluent, (International) Boston, MA
"Navajo', (Permanent Collection) The Contemporary, Northern Waters Resort, Watersmeet, MI
2023
(Moving Studio from San jose, California to Kansas City Missouri)
Permanent Collection: The Contemporary, Northern Waters Resort, Watersmeet,MI
2022
"Kandy Kultur", Core Art Gallery, Lakewood, COLO
Installation 5'x10''Resident Artist B/W 12x12's; The Alameda ArtWorks San Jose,CA
"October Group Art Show", The Jones Gallery, Kansas City, MO
Textures & Forms, 2022, Las Laguna Art Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
A Night in Venice Gala, Triton Museum, Santa Clara, CA
April Open Studios, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
"Indigenous", The Contemporary, Northern Waters Resort, Watersmeet,MI
2021
"So Real - Surreal", O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
"Indigenous", The Contemporary, Northern Waters Resort, Watersmeet, MI
"November National Group Art Show", The Jones Gallery, Kansas City, MO
"Ocean", Long Beach Creative Group (LBCG), Long Beach, CA
"Art in the Time of Corona", A Global Art Project, Dab Art Co., Los Angeles, CA
"September National Group Art Show", The Jones Gallery, Kansas City, MO
Open Studios: Fall 2021, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
Statewide 2D Art Competition, Triton Museum, Santa Clara, CA
"The Sky's The Limit", Las Laguna Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
"June National Group Art Show", The Jones Gallery, Kansas City, MO
"A Thousand Words", CORE New Art Space, Lakewood, CO
"Tribute: National: Homage to People, Places & Things", d'art Center, Norfolk, VA
Open Studios: Spring 2021, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
"April National Group Art Show", The Jones Gallery, Kansas City, MO
"Member Art Show", O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
"A Moment of Reflection", O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
2020
"April National Group Art Show", The Jones Gallery, Kansas City, MO
December Open Studios, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
2019
"Group Show", Pence Gallery, Davis, CA
"Bay Area Women Artists", O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
"Awakening The Spirit", Town Books, San Anselmo, CA
"Silicon Valley Open Studios", The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
“Holiday Boutique”, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
“Fall Show: Benefit for Sacred Hearts”, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
2018
"Art of the Spirit“, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
"Artist of the Month", Simply Smashing, Campbell, CA
"Affordable Art Fair", JCOS Art Haus, Los Gatos, CA
"Silicon Valley Open Studios", The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
“Holiday Boutique”, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
“Fall Show: Benefit for Sacred Hearts”, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
2017
"Bay Area Women Artists", O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
“Sign of the Times“, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
"Holiday Boutique",The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
"Silicon Valley Open Studios", The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
"Affordable Art Fair", JCOS Art Haus, Los Gatos, CA
2016
“Dreamscapes“, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
“Spaces Exhibition”, SpacesWorks, Menlo Park, CA
“Holiday Boutique”, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
“Spaces Exhibition”, SpaceWorks, Menlo Park, CA
“Fall Show: Benefit for Sacred Hearts”, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
“Silicon Valley Open Studios”, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
“Black,White & Shades of Gray“, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
2015
“Sight & Insight”, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
“Holiday Boutique”, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
“Fall Show: Benefit for Sacred Hearts”, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
“Blue Umbrella Collaborative”, Cabrillo Festival, Santa Cruz, CA
“Silicon Valley Open Studios”, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
“Annual Member Show", O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
2014
"Red", O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
“Penny Arcade”, HIVE Artspace, York, PA
“Blue Umbrella Collaborative”, Cabrillo Festival, Santa Cruz, CA
“Holiday Boutique”, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
“Fall Show: Benefit for Sacred Hearts”, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
“Illustrated”, HIVE Artspace, York, PA
“Silicon Valley Open Studios”, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
“SVOS Special”, Los Altos Main Street Café and Book Shop, Los Altos, CA
“The Circus! Show”, Canvas Ghost Gallery, San Jose, CA
Featured Artist: “Love Actually”, Gallery of Dreams, Campbell, CA
“SweetheART Exhibit”, The Alameda Art Works, San Jose, CA
“Art & Healing”, Lafayette Park Hotel, NCGPS Annual Dinner, Lafayette, CA
“Watercolor: Outside the Lines”, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
2013
“Teeny Tiny Show”, Starkweather Arts, Romeo, MI
“Holiday Boutique”, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
“Fall Show: Benefit for Sacred Hearts”, The Alameda ArtWorks, San Jose, CA
2009 - 2012
Featured Artist: “Black Rhapsody” Asian Fusion Restaurant, Mountain View, CA
Open Studios, Gallery of Dreams, Campbell, CA
Resident Artist: Gallery of Dreams, Campbell, CA
Galleries
Present
Spirit Gallery
ZhouB Art Center KC
Kansas City, KS 64108
2014-2020
Gallery 24
24 North Santa Cruz Avenue
Los Gatos, California 95030
JJCO's Art Haus
University Avenue
Los Gatos, CA 95030
2009-2013
Gallery of Dreams
300 Campbell Avenue
Campbell, California 95008