Warm and cool colors flow around each piece and complement each other to create a whimsical and dreamy vibe.

Themes such as animals and nature are repeated throughout the artwork in colorful expression.

It is Anne Hughes’ vision.

“I have more food for creating new works than I could ever consume,” said Hughes, an artist and Eastern alumna. “My approach is largely intuitive.”

Hughes’ current art exhibit, “Inscrutable Life,” is currently on display until April 7 in the Brainard Gallery of The Tarble Arts Center.

She will be speaking about her media use and work on April 4 at 7 p.m. in The Tarble Arts Center.

She said she allows her work and subject matter to develop without a fixed plan.

Early on in Hughes’ life she was able to pursue, incorporate and transform almost any interest through personal artistic expression.

“Curiosity about the world around me feeds my work,” she said.

The Tarble Arts Center curator, Kit Morice, said the work shows this curiosity.

“Much of her art is composed of swirling complex pieces (which viewers) really have to take in and contemplate,” he said.

During Morice’s first year at Eastern, she met Hughes as she was developing her own style and technique of art.

“We kept in touch while she was in grad school and we still do, though she is now based out of Chicago,” Morice said.

Hughes said her own personal experiences throughout her life couldn’t be separated from the content of her art, although she couldn’t think of a time when she had directly used personal experiences in creating a work.

“The process involves going in and out of intuitive, unconscious acts and then consciously looking, evaluating, analyzing and manipulating what I am doing,” she said.

Recognizing the potential of accidents, and pushing technique and composition helps Hughes find something magical about the process of manipulating marks, color and materials into a form that transcends.

“I’m interested in interconnections both in life and in the creative process. There are interconnections everywhere, as in eco-systems in nature and marks on a paper,” she said.

Hughes received her master’s degree at Eastern then went on to obtain her Master of Fine Arts degree from Bowling Green State University.

She now works with artist-in-residence fellowships, which allow her to relocate to different places throughout the year.

Hughes’ work has been exhibited throughout the country and she is on the Illinois Arts-In-Education roster.

To attain this position, artists apply and are then judged on the quality of their work, their record of professional achievement and their skills and experience as educators.

After being selected, organizations use the list as a resource to find professional art educators.

“(She is also) with the Illinois Council and Education programs where she works with children to educate them about all different types of art,” Morice said.

Nikki Beck, a junior hospitality major, was examining the exhibit Tuesday because her friend told her it was interesting.

“You really have to examine the art to find all the different colors and individual scenes within,” Beck said.

Morice said “Inscrutable Life” spans more than about 10 years of Hughes’ work all compiled into one exhibit.

“(Hughes) uses 3D and 2D pieces in a single artwork, which makes for very interesting composition,” Morice said.

He said Hughes’ style is very mysterious and surreal, as if the ideas come from dreams.

Beck said one piece, titled “Wake Up,” particularly caught her attention.

“It seems like someone is in the midst of waking up, but the dream is still kind of there,” she said. “There are many warm and cool colors interacting and there’s a lot to look at.”

Hughes said the title of the exhibit represents the obscurity of her environment.

“Life in general and in the particular is inscrutable and will always remain so,” Hughes said. “For me the pondering of such (through art) remains a great source of stimulation.”

Anne Hughes, an Eastern Graduate, has a display of her artwork in Tarble Art Center through April 7 in the Brainard Gallery. (Kelly Marie Crement/Daily Eastern News)

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