Many of us had the pleasure of hearing Ann speak at our February Textile Slam! She returns in May to offer us a longer look at her studio and practice.
STATEMENT
My artwork borrows the technique twining from the traditional craft of basketry to create a sculptural expression of my beliefs and experiences and how they are sensed by the body. I am intrigued by the process of and differences between feeling and knowing; body and mind. Ineffable memories held by the body are more potent, penetrating and enduring than those in the mind. My forms are actuated by this somatic memory in conjunction with an investigation of the dichotomies: eternal and ephemeral, strength and fragility, masculine and feminine, free and captive, old and young, living and dead.
As the world becomes increasingly technological, my work moves in the opposite direction to the point where now I tie two pieces of string together, bend some sticks, form plaster in my hands, and mold clay. Reducing art-making down to the most elemental means of expression, the simplest creative task challenges and satisfies me. Much of my current artwork pushes back against the world of increasingly complex technologies that, paradoxically, in an effort to connect us, instead separates and isolates us, removing us from authentic experience. The slow building of one stitch upon another exists within an ancient time frame, virtually un-experienced in the contemporary, digital society. My art is my voice, more than my words and in my work, feeling overshadows knowing.
$10 public; $Free for members
Please note: We will send a Zoom link the morning of the tour.
