DA Vines Vineyard & French Bistro presents…

featured artist Annabel Valerie Sclippa has inspired many by overcoming challenges in her life. With her radiant smile and presence, she goes beyond limitation, building community, making friends across the globe, and through her writing, painting, and art of living!

Born in Southern France, baby Annabel began traveling at one month old, with Africa as her first home for two years while her parents fulfilled teaching contracts in the Ivory Coast. Then America became home base. In summers, Annabel often visited her French relatives, including some who owned vineyards. She learned about wine, herbs, cuisine, and everything Francais.

Living in China for a year at age ten, expanded her cultural lens.

Just before graduating high school in Boulder Colorado, an accident, which left Annabel paralyzed, revealed her determination to go beyond apparent limitations. She took up wheelchair tennis and competed internationally in the USA, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Seeking health and understanding, she studied traditional Chinese medicine, and traveled to Brazil to experience spiritual healing.

For health reasons she moved from New York to Arizona where she created The Annabel Inn, a European-style bed and breakfast. The first year in business she also helped organize 20 events in Old Town, and has been described as “putting Cottonwood on the map.” Five stars for 5 years, but at a price.

When her health reached a crisis point, Annabel came to a realization: She wanted to transmute and transform her challenges by creating something new and beautiful, by creating art!

The doctors had run out of options, so when Annabel returned home after an experimental surgery, she rearranged her studio apartment to prioritize painting and began the next phase of overcoming. Her first public showing was at the former Manheim Gallery, and her second at Cartwheels Gallery, both in Old Town Cottonwood. She has also exhibited in Sedona, in Costa Rica, and at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.

In the TRANSCEND series, we often see the crane, painted in origami or folded paper form. In Asia a symbol of happiness, peace, healing, and longevity, here the crane also represents that underlying structure and unlimited potential of our creative imagination. Each fold is like a decision to help shape our experience, transforming a piece of paper into a form that flies.

In a playful twist, a series of male dancers takes off on Alphonse Mucha’s Art Nouveau female images, transcending presumption.

Be enchanted by a wine-bearing beauty, and let a Wine Women muse amuse you!

With more subtle and light-filled expression, the “Lilies of the Chakra” series portrays the artist’s vision of allowing inspiration to emerge from a natural form. These symbols of forgiveness, paired with poetic phrases, remind us of our light and give hope for upliftment.

As you discover depth and fullness in a peony painting, or in the many-layered “Life Cycles of a Crane,” sense the colorful and rich journey of the artist’s life, lived fully.

SHOW OPENING RECEPTION is Friday June 26th and Saturday June 27th, 2026, 5-8PM both nights. Join us for live music, wine bottle and dessert specials, and a special offering of Ratatouille on the menu.

DA Vines is located at the corner of N Main St and N 7th St in Old Town Cottonwood.
705 N Main Street, Cottonwood, AZ 86326; (928) 634-6710
For MENU and WINE viewing, and reservations: https://davinesvineyard.com/

For more SHOW details, visit: https://theenchantedmermaid.com/transcend/