Anna P. Baker
Anna P. Baker (12 June 1928 – 28 February 1985) was a Canadian visual artist. Born in London, Ontario, Canada, she was adopted by Alfred Burrows Baker and Mabel Roberta Pearl Baker. She entered the University of Western Ontario where she was elected to the Art Students League, A.I.C., and Delta Phi Delta, National Art Fraternity, and graduated in 1950. She received a BFA and a MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1954, and went on to teach art at Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights, Ohio for three years. She exhibited frequently in her home  town of London, Ontario, and for many years at the 57th Street Art Fair in Chicago, and in many cities from Los Angeles to New York. In 1956 she won the top painting award in the Chicago Art Institute's 59th Chicago and Vicinity art annual for "High Frequency Ping". Anna remained a Canadian citizen but for the last twenty nine years of her life, she lived in the village of Barton, Vermont where she opted to bow out of the world of dealers and galleries so she could work in her own way on her own terms. On 28  February 1985, Anna died in Kingston, Ontario from cancer. Anna integrated her eclectic interests into the subject matter of her paintings – Anna obtained many awards including the Frank G Logan prize at the Chicago and Vicinity Exhibition in 1956 for "High Frequency Ping" and from the New England Press, Best Illustration, Daily, Class 1, First Place, The Sunday Times Argus. Comments from critics. "Anna Baker works magnificently in many media. Her pictures reveal the true mark of genius – an originality and technical excellence that offer her viewers a glimpse into a personal world of her own devising." Laurence Lariar, New  York Art Dealer, 1967. Anna's "Unique sense of humour and incredible capacity for painstaking detail makes her work inimitable. Like all good art, Ms. Baker's compositions are basically abstract, but the images that she develops often are quizzical , evoked in dots, dashes, and color shapes that leave no area without interest." "To own an Anna Baker drawing/painting is to be on daily contact with a blithe spirit who is also one of our most accomplished artists". Harold Hayden, art critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, 1979. "Fanciful geometric wisps, suggesting the architecture of flowers and snow stars  form the cellular structure of man and beast as created by artist Anna Baker. Thus the detailing of these fine examples of decorative art is as complex as watchworks, as equisite as doilies. The method, rendered with ink, as well as watercolors and oil paints, becomes a tour de force, and the compositions are as stylized as stage sets for an allegory." Beverly E. Johnson, Los Angeles Times Home Magazine, February 4, 1968. When the Chronicle in 1974 began publishing in Barton, Vermont, Anna "began illustrating its humour column. Her first illustration showed the artist seated on a Holstein cow ...She began to submit cartoons featuring two wall-eyed Holsteins who regularly observe the triumphs and follies of the Northeast Kingdom" (NE Vermont). Tom Slayton, Sunday Times Argus, Sept.4, 1983. "Anna P. Baker, former Chicagoan creates a marvelous storybook world of her own in her infinitely detailed, intricate paintings and drawings. Her work can be seen here only at the Little Gallery, 1328 E. 57th St. which is directed by Mary Louise Womer and Mrs. Carl Schniewind, widow of the late director of the Art institute's prints and drawings department. Visitors flock to see a Baker show, and to  see the superb ceramics of Otto and Gertrude Natzler of California...Miss Baker's collection is called "Chiefly Cornish" having been done during a year's visit to Cornwall, England. The 35 pictures are filled with the high quality and the charm of her work. Her pen often reveals her lively wit as well as her originality and her imagination". Edith Weigle, art critic for Chicago Sunday Tribune, November 19, 1961. Artwork. Anna's memories around her home town, London, Ontario are transcribed into an earlier time frame in such works as: "London Airport - 1910", "Elmwood Bowling Green", "The Victoria  Jane", "Tennis", "Baseball Game", "Orangeman's Parade", "With Mutes and Plumes" and "The Garden Party". The Shakespearean series was inspired by a visit to the Stratford Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ontario in the mid-1960s. "Festival", "Richard III", "Henry V", "Malvolio" and "Taming of the Shrew" are the titles of some of the paintings from this series. Help was received from a Canada Council Grant, 1968. Loving theatre, Anna delved into the Ambrose Small story. Ambrose was the proprietor of the Grand Theatre (now Theatre London) who disappeared Dec 2, 1919 after selling his theatrical holdings, leaving his wife, $2  million and a legal tangle. His legend has inspired many words and the continuing rumour that his ghost haunts Theatre London. Anna envisioned productions as they might have been in the time of Small. Twenty-four paintings were exhibited at the Nancy Poole Studio including "Ambrose Small Production of Rose Marie", "Ambrose Small; Production of the Dumbbells", "An Ambrose Small Production of "Polly of the Circus" in which Ambrose is depicted floating over the top of the production, "Ambrose Small Production of Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "Ladies of the Chorus". There are two series of paintings and drawings from  the book, "Cranford (novel)" by Elizabeth Gaskell. In the last series of 13 paintings, the titles included "The Cat that Swallowed the Lace", "He Knew Cream Quite Well and Constantly Refused Tea With Only Milk in It", and "If the Supposed Robbers Would Come to Him He would Fight Them", "Our Idea of the Dignity of Silence was Paling Before our Curiosity", "She Did Not Seem to Notice the Extraordinary Size and Complexity of Her Headdress". Illustrating her interest in history, Anna created her lithograph "The Trojan Horse" while still at the Art Institute in Chicago. Anna painted 18 paintings  in which she visualized the French realist painter and sculptor, Rosa Bonheur, on imaginary world travels. "The Ascension of Rosa Bonheur Over Niagara Falls", "Rosa Bonheur in Venice", "Rosa Bonheur is Late for the Ambassador's Ball" are a few from this series. These were exhibited at the Howell Gallery in London, Canada. Anna felt very much akin to Rosa whose whole life was Art. Anna often signed her letters, "Rosa Bonheur of the Northeast Kingdom", the Northeast Kingdom being northeast Vermont. This was put on her tombstone in Scottsville, Ontario. Anna painted or sketched owls throughout her career; the  Holstein cow or cows were her signature cartoons for The Chronicle (Barton, Vermont) newspaper. Anna also did a series on Circus Parade which included such works as: "Circus Wagon with Lion", "Circus Wagon with Bears", "Circus Wagon with Mermaid", "Circus Parade with Walrus", "Circus Wagon with Alligator", "Marching Circus Band" and "Circus Wagons with Monkeys and Giraffes". The above biography was written by Anna Baker. The following information was assembled from material from her estate.