MSP Terminal 1, South Mall Gallery
November 5, 2025 - November 1, 2026

In True Stories, artist Anne Spooner explores the intricate relationship between humans and animals, centering on birds as enduring symbols of protection, care, and guardianship. The series examines the interwoven narratives of nature and humanity, revealing and concealing the mysteries of this shared kinship through layered visual storytelling. Spooner’s inspiration for the series originates from a family story about her mother’s compassionate rescue of abandoned baby birds. This memory continues to inform the artist’s inquiry into empathy, memory, and connection. Through mixed media techniques that combine acrylic paint, graphite, pen, antique text, paper, and photography on canvas and wood panels, Spooner constructs surfaces rich with texture and meaning. Each work invites reflection on the fragile yet resilient bonds that connect human and natural worlds. The series also functions as a meditation on loss and lineage, honoring Spooner’s late mother and extending that tribute to all daughters who carry the memory of their mothers forward. The child depicted in the painting A True Story is the artist’s mother, grounding the work in both personal and collective remembrance.

About the Artist
Anne Spooner’s work appears in the 2025 Saint Paul Almanac, and she exhibits both locally and nationally. She maintains a studio in the Lowertown Arts District of Saint Paul, Minnesota.