ANN VOLLUM 

I was born and grew up in Africa and at the age of eleven, as was the British custom, I was sent to a very strict boarding school in England. A highly regarded though narrow minded institution which specialized in conformity, surprisingly, the school did have a very good art department. I studied art for O and A-Level exams. (In England students took these exams at age 15 or 16 for O-Level and 17 or 18 years old for A-Level, a requirement for going to university.) When I left school I had an interest in textiles, however, art school was out of the question. Not being a “C” grade student and wanting a career in the arts, I was forced to study to be an architect.  This was a profession that was considered to be vaguely respectable and to which I was totally unsuited. After my BA in Architectural Studies I spent a year at The London College of Printing.  From there I went to work for a commercial printer, hated it, handed in my notice, and was transferred to their graphic design company. I worked in this field for many years both in London and New York as a graphic designer and art director.  I came to the USA to live and work in the late 1980’s.

When I was around ten years old  a family friend gifted me his oil paints and brushes. I still use the brushes! This was really the catalyst to my interest in painting. At the end of the 1990’s, wanting a faster drying medium, I changed from painting in oil to using mostly acrylic and oil bar. Over the years I’ve explored realism, abstraction, and fantasy genres.  In May of 2008 I started a blog called “A Beastie a Day”.  For a year I posted an ink drawing of an imaginary “Beastie” daily.  I continued posting work to this blog through January 2017. This blog was instrumental to my development as an artist. (https://beastlybeasties.com/)

From NY I moved to New Jersey, and then joined a local group, The Book Arts Roundtable, and pursued creating artist books. Over the years these became larger and moved further away from a traditional book structure. A workshop with Beatrice Coron got me interested in cutting intricate patterns out of Tyvek with an X-acto knife. Wanting to work larger, and inspired by Piper Shepard, I started painting fabric and using it for my cut designs. The next step was to start stitching into these pieces to make them more dynamic. This lead to an all stitched piece called “Motherlode”. Colorful “Beasties” are stitched into  very heavy canvas along with expressive words.  My textile journey had begun, and I was hooked.

For a while I stitched what I refer to as “Fantasy Tableaux”.  In these artworks I combined  my “Beasties” with figures taken from old illustrations to create narratives. Around this time I took a couple of excellent workshops by Sue Stone, one in texture and pattern, the other in portraiture. These workshops along with a number of the teachers from the TextileArtist.org “Stitch Club” totally changed my artistic direction.

Currently I work on portraits and make soft sculptures.  For the portraits I mostly stitch on linen using a single strand of DMC embroidery floss.  This involves stitching intuitively in a random manner to form the detail, colors and tones that I need. For me it is “painting” with stitch. I can create details in stitch which would elude me in any other medium. When doing a portrait I will carefully consider my source photograph: I have to feel a connection to the subject for the portrait to resonate. When I start a portrait I will have an idea of which techniques I plan to use, however, the portrait will dictate my direction as I go along. I always keep an open mind. I transfer a drawing to linen and then work with my selected photograph up on a computer monitor. This gives me more detail to work from than a printout. A sturdy embroidery hoop keeps my fabric taut, and it then becomes the frame for my finished piece. I like to leave the excess cloth hanging around the hoop to give a more intimate feel and a connection between the viewer and the artist.  The back of the work which in my view holds a hidden beauty due to the randomness of the stitching is also accessible in these pieces.

My sculptural pieces require a different form of concentration and observation to that required to capture the essence of a sitter for a portrait. In this way I find them very refreshing  and meditative, and I call them my “talismans”. They are constructed from “poufs”, knotted textiles, and often driftwood or sticks are used as armatures. Poufs are made from fabric that has been rescued and are stuffed with Polyfil or fabric scraps. I embellish the poufs and the knotted pieces with stitching and found objects such as vintage buttons, shells, stones and washers. When I have a collection of poufs which have sat around for a while I figure out how they will go together.  The process is  much like putting together a puzzle. The muted color in my sculptures comes from cloth I dye using plant matter. I have a series of knotted and embellished jeans which I call “The Pants They Wore”.  These are a development from the smaller knotted talismans.

My life experience has given me an eye for detail, pattern and structure.  The materials I work with mostly are  rescued or donated, and thus for me they bring an intimacy and history to the artwork.  Working in fiber is tremendously exciting for me and I had never imagined that I would enjoy stitching portraits and working more abstractly with soft sculpture!

I aspire to be unconventional. I recently had to choose a word to describe my work. I chose subversion. Traditionally stitch is thought to be “women’s work”, employed as necessary for practical purposes. My focus with the stitch I use is to create detail, emotion, pattern and texture. I like to break rules and to work  intuitively, organically and with emotion.  Above all, I love the tactility of fiber, and the subversiveness of using practical materials and techniques to create objects of a totally impractical purpose. 

My dining room studio is small and has very limited space for hanging my pieces, so it is tremendously rewarding to see my work installed in galleries, to get feedback from viewers and to converse with them. When presenting my work I want the viewer to be amazed at what is possible with stitch. I hope they feel a connection to my pieces and that they come away feeling inspired.

Current goals include developing my portraiture, perfecting a painterly style that is uniquely mine and possibly including more script. For my sculptural pieces I am interested in introducing techniques new to me: wet felting and variations on wrapping.   I am working on some web techniques. I would  also like to do more installations. “What if” is always on my mind!

Website: https://www.annvollum.com/