"An intriguing and complex fabric of visual poetry.
Wonderful to see Ann’s adventurous scale of exploration in this moment
when perhaps an artist’s vision of the big picture is of such dire importance."
–Robert Ross, Professor Emeritus of painting, University of Arkansas

Ann brings a rich background to her work. She received a BA with honors in textile/fashion in London at Goldsmith’s College. She was a book designer in New York City and Santa Fe. She now lives in Silver City, NM and is focusing on painting. She has made art her whole life.

I enjoy experimenting with materials. My background studying textile design is now coming through in many of my tapestry-like paintings. Odd patterns have always fascinated me. My medium is oil on wrinkled linen or stretched canvas. Images show themselves to me in the textured canvas and washes of paint I apply. I am surprised at the forms that reveal themselves with this process. It’s as if there’s a hidden language just waiting to be found when the mind relaxes. It’s as if the forms want to tell a joke, like a cartoon or sometimes just be graceful like a beautiful textile pattern. I’ve always been interested in the unconscious and what’s lurking just under the surface of everyday life. I participated in a dream group for many years. 

Some of my areas of interest are Medieval marginalia drawings that the monks painted in the margins of manuscripts. These paintings seem to tap right into bizarre unconscious content. I love the decorative wall paintings found in Rome’s grottos in the fifteenth century when the word “grotesque” (after grotto)  was first coined to describe their odd expressions. I’m very fond of 18th century English silk designs that have abstract shapes combined with floral motifs. I also love mystical painters such as Agnes Pelton and Hilma af Klint both of whom were familiar with the philosophy of Rudolph Steiner, the Austrian occultist.