Alexandra Yakutis began her formal art education in the early 1970s, first at a community art center in Riverside, California, and soon thereafter at Cal State Fullerton, where a retrospective of abstract paintings by southern California artist John McLaughlin* evoked in her sensations and perceptions resembling a variety of spiritual experience she had only previously encountered in communion with nature.

For practical reasons she transferred to the University of Washington, Seattle, where she was required to demonstrate proficiency in representational drawing, painting, and textile design. She won a fellowship for travel to Java and Bali, went to work for a contemporary art museum, decided against graduate school. She began painting independently in 1982. Her studio practice has served as the central principle of her life ever since.

Alexandra arrived upon the Gaviota Coast and Santa Ynez Valley in 1994. The wild shorelines, idyllic river valley, and transverse ranges are worthy subjects all their own. Ultimately, though, it’s the unseen that fascinates her more — how to visualize that. Using geometry to help mark time, she draws on things she finds sacred in nature - especially coastlines and trees - to create images that summon the viewer to a world apart.

Friends and family call her Annie.

* https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-mclaughlin-lacma-20161104-htmlstory.html