The self-taught artist grew up in tiny Easton's Corners, Ontario, and studied to be a nurse. The profession was not her calling, but one that was taught conveniently close to home. Angelina's feelings about the management of nurses are expressed rather graphically in her painting entitled "Servitude." This one features a nurse serving up her own bloody head on a platter.
Angelina began delving into art when she and her husband Chris decided they needed something to complement the antique collection in their Merrickville home. The stoic faces of the children in her first paintings mimicked the popular Americana folk art style. The Wronas live in "Villa Villekulla," a bright yellow house named after Pippi Longstocking's home. The cheerful exterior, however, lends no clue to the dark paintings and interesting sculptures that dwell within. Sometimes Angelina's daughters have trouble convincing their friends to stay overnight.
One evening in 2005, Angelina was watching television when a particular Japanime (Japanese animation) character caught her attention. "It was the eyes. They just stuck with me for a long time afterwards," she says. Thus began the first compulsive creative streak that the artist would experience. She felt a need to recreate the eyes that she had seen in the Japanese art, in a painting of her own expression. The result was "Stung"-a portrait of a little girl that has just been stung by a bee.
When inspiration comes knocking, Angelina often sketches and paints for 12 to 14 hours straight, until the image begins to take the authentic shape of the vision in her head. The artist says she often has a movie playing in the background as white noise distraction. "I need to keep the censor busy so the artist can play. If not, I will think my way out of a perfectly good painting." She has to act on the inspiration before she loses it. Sometimes the creative juices are set to flowing by a picture in a fashion magazine; a particular pose or expression. Her work often represents the little girl within her and is not representative of her 13 and 14-year-old daughters as some people choose to believe.
The nature of her work often prompts controversial reactions. One blogger wrote: "It sort of makes you wonder how Wrona feels about her two daughters..." Comments like this don't come as a surprise to the artist. She has seen parents steering their children away from the door of her Anarchy Gallery in Merrickville, forbidding them to look at the dark images. "In the beginning, the negative reactions hurt a bit. But now I love that people either really hate or really love my work because at least it is a strong reaction to the art-and the haters always come around in the end."
Some of Angelina's most popular new works feature curvaceous women in various melancholy frames of mind. One femme fatale smokes a cigarette, makeup running from teary eyes. Another, sporting only a set of curlers and a pair of ruffled panties, is "Doin' the Dishes." Any artist allows a certain amount of autobiography into their work. These are clearly different sides of the artist, Angelina Wrona.
Many artists are creating a similar Japanime-inspired genre of art today. The feature that sets Angelina's girls apart from all the rest of the angst-ridden, doe-eyed characters in the genre is their undeniable beauty. As this is such a genuine expression of Angelina, it isn't likely that her style will change anytime soon. There are many more young women inside the artist, waiting to have their stories told.
