Anna Flatten 

Anna Flatten, whose career as an artist includes book illustrations and book covers, many special shows and awards for her painting, teaching, origination the Et Cetera Bookstore and Gallery in 1971, and being a founding member of the Guadalupe Ranch Crafts Community talks about her work:
"Art is an ordinary activity which opens the imaginary door into the extraordinary; an activity in which a transformation can take place for the artist and the viewer. How this comes about is a mystery because we are talking about the illusion of something. In painting this illusion is on a mere two dimensional surface but a gamut of emotions can be experienced there.
"I paint a diversity of subject matter: native people in traditional settings, portraits and the mystical-fantastical. Indians: they are the spirit of the hemisphere and symbolize an attitude toward nature, man and God we have denied and yet one of which we yearn. This is why, as subjects they are so appealing."
This same spirit can be found in cover designs Anna did for The Gabriel Papers and The American Book of the Dead where nature and man, the real and the extraordinary find unity.
"When an idea begins to take shape, in the process the paintings suggests itself and therefore I never know what the finished product will be. I go to great lengths to authenticate the details of the paintings where historical and ethnic characteristics are important."
Anna is also well-known for here brilliant batiks based on mythological characters and stories, nature scenes and wildlife. Anna's studio is located in the Gast Haus, 952 High Street, Comfort, Texas.