I recently ran into Anser while biking a box of CBE hoodies to a friends house. She was grabbing a coffee in the Junction and had seen me riding by and hollered me over. I was shocked to see her back in the city, last i had heard she was somewhere in Thailand trying to make her way to Haiti to help out after the devastating earthquake. We sat in Malta Park and she told me all about her travels, the places she had been, the extreme encounters she had while painting in Thailand, and briefly about the situation in Haiti. She had returned to Toronto because her money had ran out, and being away from home for almost a year was making her extremely homesick. She invited me over to her friends place,where she is staying temporarily, to show me photographs she had taken, mostly of paintings she had done recently. I was surprised how many “Painted Lady” faces she hadn’t painted and when i asked her what the deal was with the no facial situation she explained to me how her relationship with her own “Painted Lady” character had ended shortly after she had exhibited at Funktion’s previous space. “It wasn’t working out” she explained,“our hearts were in different places and we decided to take some time away from each other”. I suppose all the attention and hype that surrounded the painted lady during the time of our exhibit changed Anser feeling towards her character. Either that or she is just moving on towards other mysterious acts of vandalism. Whatever it is, and knowing Anser, I’m sure whatever she has in store for the streets next is gonna be pretty fucking rad.
So here’s to that beautifully elusive face - that not only illuminated the streets of our city - but also helped Funktion Gallery get up. Thank you painty spraypaint lady face painted superfast woman, we hope you come back when the city needs you the most, like batman or some shit.
And if you missed the Anser interviews check them out here at The Varsity and Torontoist
And if you wanna see some faces before the buff we got them linked right up for you
Anser Pics #1
Anser Pics #2