“Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
– Picasso
Nice to meet you
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I’m Ana
I’m an architect + artist living in Nashville, Tennessee.
I’m an architect + artist living in Nashville, Tennessee.
Why I Paint –
Life is beautiful, mysterious, and complex. But how often do we see it that way? As children, we explore the world with wonder. We marvel with curiosity at everything we can’t possibly understand. Then, all too quickly, we grow up. We learn to fear what we don’t know and to protect ourselves, we take all that wonder and box it up with our labels, theories, and dogmas. Life dulls, and ironically, we spend the rest of our days longing for something more.
We live with this blurred and fractured vision of the world, yet inside each of us, there’s an undeniable conviction that something beautiful and perfect still exists just beyond our grasp. So we chase our longings, and if we’re lucky, they lead us right back to the sublime life. The undefinable, inexplicable, sacred beating heart of life.
To me, this is art. It’s a humbling – a stripping away of everything I think I know in an effort to rediscover what I’ve lost. It’s tearing things down to their foundations, looking out beyond the edge, and recognizing the unbound, insane beauty that flows eternally around us all.
In the meditation of a painting, something transcends. In a moment of pure stillness or an unchecked brushstroke, I catch a glimpse of it – like a breath of magic from another world. It’s intoxicating, fleeting, and highly addictive because a glimpse is never enough. So each new work becomes an invitation to dance with the divine… if only for another moment in time.
Learn more –
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Blurred & Fractured - Modfellows Gallery, September 3rd-24th, 2022
Seven Red Roses - Artsy, February 2022
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International Watercolor Masters Merit Award, 2022
AIP 24 Juror Award, 2008
AIP 23 Hugh Ferris Memorial Prize, 2007
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American Society of Architectural Illustrators, since 2006
American Watercolor Society
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Ana Carolina Monnaco, Imaginative Worldscapes
Nashville Arts Magazine, April 2012
Local Architect Brings Home National Art Award
Orlando Business Journal, December 2007
History –
Ana’s work draws on the depth and beauty of our collective imagination. Her paintings invite the viewer to experience a space in time through memory and emotion, drawing them beyond the surface of the canvas and into a world that’s seemingly familiar, yet still undefinable.
Born in Curitiba, Brazil, Ana developed a love for the arts at an early age. Surrounded by passionate painters and architects, she was quickly drawn in by the beauty of their creative spirits and the alluring power of a blank page.
Ana went on to study architecture and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2002, receiving the prestigious Luther Lashmit Design Award and Traveling Scholarship.
After university, Ana joined Morris Architects in Orlando, Florida. During her time at Morris, she worked on the conceptual design of more than 50 projects in countries including the US, Brazil, China, Singapore, Dubai, and the Caribbean. In 2007, Ana Carolina Mönnaco became the first woman and youngest recipient of the Hugh Ferris Memorial Prize, the singular highest achievement award in architectural illustration, for her rendering of a 360º living coral reef exhibit entitled The Coral Helix. In 2009 she announced the creation of her Nashville-based design studio, MÖNNACO, dedicated to providing inspired illustrations that capture the imagination for clients across the broad spectrum of industry.
When the world stopped in 2020, Ana returned to the blank page and began to paint. Her recent work is a personal journey back to the more timeless traditions of art – rediscovering expression in its purest form.
