How Artist Angela Meijer Explores the Themes of Memory and Connection in Her Art

Angela Meijer is a passionate artist whose creative journey spans nearly three decades, seamlessly blending photography and painting to explore the themes of memory, connection, and the beauty of everyday life. In this interview, she talks about her background, from her early days studying printmaking and photography in Portland and Amsterdam to her current life in Lake Country, Wisconsin. Angela describes her creative process as guided by intuition and finds inspiration in nature, books, music, and art. She also opens up on the special meaning behind her first book and the importance of experimenting in her work.

Artist Angela Meijer has been featured in the Arts to Hearts Project’s book Art and Woman and is recognized by Women in Arts Network as a portfolio partner. Women in Arts Network is a proud portfolio partner of the Arts to Hearts Project’s books and magazines.

Meijer graduated with a BFA in fine art photography nearly 30 years ago and has been exploring visual language ever since. Her photography can be found in International collections and publications. Twenty years ago, Angela traded in her camera, invested in paints and canvases, and started painting daily from the inside out. Her paintings were primarily abstract and nonrepresentational until a few years ago. Many of these paintings are in private and corporate collections. In 2021, Angela invested in a camera and started photographing and painting flowers, focusing on the language of flowers. She also explores how memory changes and new choices change how we see the past. Meijer is currently developing a body of artwork using vivid color and bold marks over the top of acrylic paintings, as well as photography of people and flowers now and from her archives.

1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background?

I am a painter and photographer creating artwork from the inside/out in Lake Country, Wisconsin. Since 2012, I have also painted colorful collaborative abstract paintings with an artist collective called Duende As Art. My husband and I are almost empty nesters, and our three daughters are all studying art and exploring visual language. Our oldest daughter is studying nearby, and our youngest daughter will be turning 18 this year and are planning on studying art in the Netherlands. It’s thrilling to be living and working in such a creative home. I grew up in Portland, Oregon where I started studying printmaking and bookmaking when I was 18. A few years later, I moved to Amsterdam to study art in a more international environment. I majored in photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, and then began exhibiting my work as limited edition books and installations. After moving to the United States in the early 2000’s I became a mother and traded in my camera to buy paints and began painting daily from the inside/out. A few years ago, I purchased a good camera and a printer that allows me to print my work on beautiful cold press paper with pigment inks. This has allowed me to bring photography and painting together in a new and exciting way.

So much can be expressed through color and movement, and this language is universal, connecting us all.

_{Angela Meijer}

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2. What inspired you to become an artist?

I read all of Mya Angelou’s books when I was 17, and then I heard her speak. She talked about the power of our voices to bring life into this world, and I knew I wanted to study visual language.

3. What is your creative process like from start to finish?

A quote from Van Gogh expresses this quite well, “I dream my paintings, and then I paint my dream.” Even when I start with a sketch, my work always evolves and informs me while I am working. My work begins intuitively, and then as I stand back and listen, I begin to respond to the work and develop it. I am usually working on several pieces at a time, as I sometimes have to look at artwork for weeks before I see the next step. I know when a work is done, and sometimes I take a piece too far and it has to go. In my creative process, I resonate with something Marc Chagall once said, “If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.”

4. Where do you find inspiration for your artwork?

While painting, reading a book, listening to music, having creative conversations, watching a film, taking walks in nature, visiting museums and bookstores, looking at photographs, and standing back and taking time to look, listen, and reflect on what I am seeing.

Portraiture and the language of flowers are an endless source of inspiration and are emerging together with painted abstraction. It’s thrilling to see years of visual exploration converge into a visual language that is my own.

_{Angela Meijer}

5. How do you know when a piece of art is finished?

I put pieces larger pieces up in our living room, and smaller pieces up on my bulletin board for at least a week and I look at them at different times throughout the day. I know when they’re done I still can travel or experience a sense of mystery in the artwork and feel I haven’t overworked it.

Angela Meijer’s art beautifully combines her past and present, showcasing her dedication to exploring feelings and connections through both painting and photography. As she develops new projects that weave together her experiences and the language of flowers, Angela invites us all to connect with the deeper meanings in her work. To learn more about Angela, visit the links below.

You can explore Angela Meijer’s journey and the stories of other artists by purchasing our Art And Woman Book here: