Ann's Art

Postcards from the Cape 2015
chopped up watercolor paintings

Since childhood I have always thought a pad of blank paper and a new pen was a beautiful thing! I like the physical processes involved in making art; the absorption of liquid in to paper fibers, the feel of cutting through cardstock with a sharp blade and the surprise each time you peel back a monoprint from its plate. My work with children inspires this love of materials. They are so good at enjoying tearing, gluing, painting, and building.

Searching for materials is a preoccupation when teaching classes for children. I enjoy this process and like to recycle objects and old pieces of art and give them a new life. I like the idea of chance- making art into whatever you find that day.

cut paper painted with tempera

I bind books because I get to make or buy beautiful paper, do a lot of cutting and end up with a neat, functional product. They become perfect (well they are handmade so almost perfect) finite units- order among chaos. I like the process because it is different than experimenting with materials, which I usually do. Journals are an invitation to package one’s own 
words and images. The process makes me measure, which does not come naturally to me, but which I highly respect.

I consider drawing like jogging- a kind of workout that that develops the ‘muscle’ for other work.  Teaching at Habitat, the Mass Audubon Center in Belmont has inspired me to draw by learning natural history and looking more closely at organisms.

Related Experience

Art teacher, A Room for Art, Arlington, Massachusetts 

aroomforart.blogspot.com

Natural History teacher, Massachusetts Audubon at Habitat, Belmont, Ma

Enrichment Programs for Schools: Brackett, Peirce and Bishop, Arlington, Ma

Art teacher, Arlington Community Education

Art Courses Taken

Cambridge Adult Ed:

-Collage

-Nature Drawing, Claire Walker Leslie

-Life Drawing, Douglas Kornfield

-Life Drawing, Charles Feininger

-Art History, Ruth Sidd

Arlington Center for the Arts:

-Paste Paper and Journals, John McPhee

-Nature Encounters with Art, Diane Feidler

Decordova:

-Printmaking and Watercolor, Marjorie Glick and Ann Forbush

Paper Source:

 Coptic Binding,

 Simple Books for Kids, Stephanie Smith

Art Gallery of Ontario

-Life Drawing

coptic bound journals, paste paper covers

oil pastel on fuzzy mat board

watercolour pencil

Red Snapper: watercolour

old bathing suits, pipe cleaners, metal plate with holes

Fish Bones: watercolour

Tyringham, Ma: watercolour

View from the Kitchen Sink