Artist Statement
I love to paint. My grandmother was a painter, and so was my mother. They taught me to see beauty in my life, to arrange things around me for maximum enjoyment. By painting those arrangements, I can share with others the beauty and interest I find in common objects.
Flowers are my favorites, and nearly all my still life paintings will include flowers or plants in some way. I often include old items that were beautiful when they were made and are now enhanced by their rarity. Family treasures seem to find a natural place in my arrangements, perhaps because family is the basis of everything that we can enjoy.
…detail is amazing, but it’s the way Ann surrounds it, balances it with areas of absolute stark simplicity. Nothingness offsets activity. Linda Banks Ord, Juror
The still life is, for me, an approach with which I can consistently symbolized everything I want to express in paintings—from panoramas to relationships. When I conjure up a landscape, I prefer to symbolize it in terms of still life arrangements of elements and colors. When I paint a portrait, I prefer not to copy facial features but to paint those elements that symbolize the deeper meaning of that person’s existence as it has been revealed to me.
The still life allows me more opportunities for individual expression. It is more than a landscape or portrait because I am able to create an environment with endless possibilities.
[Her] …work deals in extreme opposites—the soft, gentle floral forms and the structured dissecting, geometric, graphic patterns… [the combination] helps the viewer understand better the natural form. Ken Gross, Juror
