December’s art show will feature whimsical animal paintings by Annie Spear.

A meet the artist reception will take place on Saturday, December 8^th from 2-4 p.m. with light refreshments. Free and open to the public.

Annie started oil painting at a very young age. She received a degree in Auto Body and enjoyed painting cars. By twenty one she became a union steelworker painting industrial equipment. Never afraid to color outside the lines, in her own time she painted everything from rooms to houses. She even bought an old Victorian and spent years painting, wallpapering and yes, rearranging the furniture in all 15 rooms of it.

Annie had heart failure unexpectedly at the age of thirty two. She was the sixty sixth person ever to be diagnosed with a very rare heart disease called Giant Cell Myocarditis. The odds of survival were five years with a transplant likely in the first year.  The last eight years she has had five different major organ failures and eight different potentially fatal diagnoses even spent a summer in a coma. Eventually she was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus. Not able to work or get around well she decided to start painting on canvas again. Painting is a huge part of her healing.  Her amazing faith and positive attitude is the only explanation of how she survived. Her hope is that her paintings make people laugh. Her goal is to add humor to fine art, a rare combination.

She will tell you that having her world turned upside down is the best thing that has happened to her. “It’s as if God enjoys frequently rearranging the furniture of my life.” Annie lives at home with her husband Jeffrey and their beloved kitty named Ethel Merman.