Angel Wagner

Angel Wagner is a Minneapolis-based artist and self-taught oil painter specializing in portraiture, symbolism, and depicting women from the female gaze. Her imagery is figurative and surreal, guided by a personal lexicon of symbols. Her influences include the great women surrealists, the Art Deco period, and positive psychology.

Wagner’s feminist painting is deeply informed by her sixteen years of experience as a licensed counselor working with women. The themes in her artwork mirror those explored in her counseling work: healing, transformation, and strength. Her paintings seek to validate, empower, and honor women. Wagner’s work is held in private collections across the United States.


Artist Statement

As a counselor for over 16 years, I worked with thousands of people on changing their self-limiting beliefs and manifesting their authentic lives. The cognitive behavioral therapy I provided helped me examine my own limiting beliefs about being an artist. While teaching meditation in group therapy, I began receiving visual ideas for affirmations—and those visions eventually became paintings.

Now I create visual affirmations for women that embody these insights. These are the kinds of paintings I’ve longed to see in the world, because the modern world isn’t so modern for women. Galleries and museums are still filled with images of women without agency, and lawmakers continue to walk back women’s rights. My paintings are affirmations of freedom, transformation, strength, and power. They articulate both the wound and the resolution—sometimes even the revolution. Most of all, they have helped me manifest my true self and life.


www.angelwagnerart.com

What themes or emotions are you exploring in your current work?

My current body of work is about finding your inner heroine, following divine guidance, and owning your power. It has been greatly impacted by my work as a counselor with women for over fifteen years.


What does your creative process look like?

I often wake up in the morning with an idea for a new painting. It's usually a reflection of things I’ve been thinking about or my current state of mind. Sometimes an object or a person will spark a specific vision.


What inspires you outside of the visual arts?

Many things: positive psychology, the natural world, the world of the unseen, and my experience as a woman in the modern world—which, in many ways, isn’t so modern for women.


How do you balance personal expression with the business side of your career?

Setting a clear boundary between my creative work and the business side allows me to fully commit to both roles. I say no to opportunities that would drain my creative time.


What do you hope viewers feel or take away from your work?

I hope people gain insight, inspiration, and validation through my work—ultimately connecting more deeply to themselves.