Navigating Anastasia’s paintings is like stepping through the looking glass and entering a world populated by familiar creatures endowed with magical powers. Whether depicting human figures looming large over cityscapes or wild beasts endowed with human expressions, her work evokes the mysterious forces dormant in each of us. Her images, like shamans, intercede between humanity and spirits. Calling on the spirits to heal, to soothe, to lift the tedious burden of the mundane and, at times, to amuse.

Under the guise of naïve representations, lies a deliberate stylistic choice that best meets the reinterpretation of age old myths and the representation of invented ones. Shedding her academic education, and moving away from portraiture, she re-tells stories with a fresh perspective in her small works on paper where human protagonists’ faces are mask like, their features stylized to depict a single expression, to transcend a specific emotion. As such they recall the iconic practice of classical Greek theater. The legacy of the theater, where Anastasia successfully worked for many years and was nominated for prestigious awards for set decoration and costume design, is also witnessed in the choice of the specific episode she pictorially narrates. Whether inspired by sacred texts, dreams or personal experience, each picture captures the essence of the story vividly seizing the turning point in the narrative.

In exploring the mystery of life, the female form becomes the representation of the universe that both protects life and nurtures eternal emotional paradoxes. Like the primeval goddess, the monumental Woman in the motherhood series holds fully formed adults as well as infants in her womb. In this sanctuary the fruits of her womb yearn to complement each other, at times competing at others consoling each other.

Whereas the universe is a shelter it is also a world that is governed by an intricate, albeit invisible, mechanism, which employs a multitude of deities to maintain a semblance of order. One such heavenly laborer is depicted in the “devil hunter” where a tall winged figure is seen impassibly strolling out of the picture with his catch of the day, a small and visibly angry little red devil in a bird cage, unaware that his prey’s accomplice is running behind him ladder in hand. In the “snow maker”, a female giant – colander in hand – stoops over a miniature house and gently shakes the snow unto the lone dwelling. Miraculous divine intervention is further recorded in the retablo – like appeal for a husband where a prominent naked bride is kneeling in prayer to Christ floating in the heavens above her while two angels, unbeknown to her, are descending to earth with their gift of a handsome groom. Acting as a chronicles of wonders, most of the small pictures are imbued with an impish sense of humor that cannot fail to elicit a smile while they simultaneously incite the contemplation of infinite possibilities.

Recurrent in her iconography is the bull, exuding strength, determination and occasionally rage. The sense of power is heightened by her use of highly saturated primary colors and her palette of bold reds, blacks, and whites, evenly applied in simplified shapes creates a lustrous, shimmering mesmerizing effect. Power emanates from her images not only by virtue of the treatment of paint and the intensity of color but also by the choice and use of a variety of power symbols. While domestic animals – upholding the viewer’s gaze – are exalted like colossi, in full frontal depictions and close crops that push the boundaries of the canvas to the limit of explosion; epitomes of power, such as Napoleon, lionized by history as a monument to military might and power, is cruelly diminished by being subjected to primal human desire. Donning Armani sunglasses and exposing a hairy chest under a partially unbuttoned shirt, the famous Corsican betrays our credulous belief in the super hero. The conqueror is depicted displaying hints of vulgarity and vulnerability in the “Dinner with Napoleon” series as he woos, is ensnared and ultimately defeated by the ultimate temptress.

In contrast to the tragic fate of some archetypes like the Minotaur – a product of the forbidden love for the divine made flesh – cursed to eat human flesh and thus exiled by puny men fearing for their lives to Daedalus’ labyrinth; another predominant theme is that of the endless cycle of life – that born out of carnal love – that carries a mystical promise of the continued regeneration of the spirit. In Anastasia’s universe inanimate objects, the animal and vegetal realms become imbued with the life force that animates us. Through her brush, they are transformed into sentient beings capable of emotions, and often incarnating the constant duality we experience as both tyrants and victims.

While Anastasia’s art is reminiscent of symbolism, surrealism, the Nabis and Rousseau; her singular allegories recall South America’s magic realism literature and awaken ancient longings long buried by our frenetic daily preoccupations. To gaze at it is to open a window to our soul.