Montauk Pioneer - February 13, 2009

Anne Drager, in her beachfront home and studio, overlooking the scenic bluffs of Gardiner's Bay along Navy Road, she has created numerous mobiles and sculptures from these assorted beach finds. As a fabric artist, she has also collected scraps of colorful material, fake fur, buttons and collages for the beautiful tote bags she makes by hand, which will soon be available in local stores. In addition, Drager, originally from Germany, creates her own handmade, delicate jewelry, and she is even a writer, creating poems and stories.

But in 2006, Drager left her safe haven in Montauk and ventured to Venice, Italy, to get over a broken heart, after a love affair ended.

"We had fallen in love, but we couldn't be together because of obstacles," Drager recalled, sitting in her Montauk studio, overlooking the water. "I wrote him some letters, but I decided instead of mailing them, that I would photograph them instead."

Drager had been to Venice 11 years earlier, and since then, she had wanted to go back some day for their famous carnival, held each year in February.

"So I decided to rent an apartment there for two months, and I took my cameras, my watercolors, books and guitar, and went off by myself for an adventure."

What resulted, was a two-month sojourn to Italy, where Drager lived in an apartment amidst the scenic canals of Venice, to lose herself in the romance of this special city. For the next weeks, she walked the ancient streets, photographing the couples kissing, the winding canals, the gondolas, beautiful statues and masks, and tried to capture the mood. She went to the "Bridge of Sighs," threw red roses into the canal, and photographed them floating in the water. She also photographed her love letters, set in collages with flowers and other objects around them.

"I would take a walk each morning, exploring the city, and looking for creative ideas to photograph," she explained. "I stood by the fountains and photographed myself-I stood by the bridges and canals and superimposed images on them. I also used images of my guitar, and I bought fresh roses each day."

All this helped her to work through her grief about her impossible relationship back home, and her mournful longings.

"It was never a real relationship, so it was all kind of imaginary-in my mind, and I brought this sense of imagination and romance into my work," she said, sorting through the 25 framed photographs she chose to hang in her upcoming Feb. 4 show at Pierre's Restaurant, on Main Street in Bridgehampton. The exhibit, appropriately called, "Letters From Venice," runs through March 4, and the opening reception will be on February 14, from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.

"When I got back, and saw all these really romantic photos, it occurred to me to do a show of them for Valentine's Day, so that's when I plan to have my opening reception," she said. "We'll have red roses all around the restaurant, and it will be a fun thing to do on this special day, for people out here in the winter," she said. Drager also created a special art book of her Venice photos, which will be for sale at the show.

"I find, as an artist, that I do more interesting work during times of emotional change, when you really have to find yourself," she said. "I find the camera is a therapeutic tool, and I'd rather do this than see a therapist."

Drager's creativity showed up at the early age of eight, when she used to build dollhouses and make mobiles out of plastic cups, with her childhood friends in her native village of Lubeck, Germany.

As a teenager, she also did macramé, ceramics, pottery, knitting, and hooking rugs. At 12 years old, she got her first camera, and she was "hooked."

Drager earned her undergraduate degree at the City University Business School in London, and earned her Masters in Art History from the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University in Bonn, Germany. She has exhibited in numerous galleries in the Hamptons and New York City, and she looks forward to her opening this weekend at the romantic Pierre's Restaurant.