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Anne was born and raised in New England, a place with many
excellent qualities but terrible weather.
She attended Ohio Wesleyan University and studied
printmaking with Ebb Haycock, which turned out to be handy,
as you shall see.
After graduating she enjoyed a period of somewhat
aimless travel, which eventually led to discovering Santa Fe
in 1971. It was
a beautiful, easy place to be with a wonderful climate.
She felt instantly at home and decided to stay
forever.
It’s a known fact that many people can go their entire
lives without ever encountering an etching press, more so
these days than ever. Oddly,
Anne seems to attract them.
She found she was forever bumping into unused and
abandoned ones, which people then would than offer for her
to use. It
happened once again in Santa Fe, so she concluded the
obvious and set up shop as a printmaker.
She was also a barmaid, an artist’s model and a
touchup painter for rustic but peeling hotel beds.
Her early Santa Fe was all about odd jobs.
Some years later she was picnicking with a friend when a
hummingbird stared at her for several very long minutes.
He was hovering over an intensely blooming Claret Cup
cactus at the time. Once
again succumbing to the obvious, Anne did an etching of the
little red plant and the first of her popular series of
small, hand colored etchings was produced.
In 1974 Anne took over Graphics House Gallery and moved it
into a roomy old building next to Gormely’s Store.
From then until mid 1997 she operated as a combined
etching/engraving studio and art gallery in the tradition of
Canyon Road. These
days, it lives on quite happily in one room of the same
building in the custody of a newer, fresher energy: Deborah
Fritz-Leyden
The change is largely because in 1981 Anne’s focus shifted
somewhat drastically when a friend asked if she would like
to go horseback riding.
This turned her instantly
into a 12 year old, and she has been involved with
horses ever since. Eventually
she found herself boarding three animals in a rapidly
expanding community where spacious country was becoming
scarce. The
problem was solved by moving north, near Abiquiu, to a horse
ranch across the street from National Forest.
Since she does not enter competitions, and has shown
exclusively at Graphics House for the last few decades, Anne
has no awards to speak of, nor lengthy lists of prestigious
exhibitions. She
does feel, however, that her work may be hung in more
bathrooms, hallways and kitchens than any other artist
working in original media today. |
