Today we’d like to introduce you to Ann Weber.
Hi Ann, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My journey began with ceramics in the early 70s in Ithaca, New York when I opened a pottery shop with my husband. We created functional pottery and aligned our values with the Hippie movement. Relocating to New York City with a different husband ten years later, I made pottery in a studio located in the meat packing district until I burnt out and went to graduate school at California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) in Oakland, studying with Viola Frey. Her influence on me was totemic.
I started working in cardboard in 1991 because I wanted to eliminate the cumbersome process of clay and make large sculptures that were lightweight. Frank Gehry’s cardboard furniture was my initial inspiration. The material still holds endless possibilities for me.
My life changed again after talking with an artist friend who told me that he had had more attention for his paintings in eight months after moving to Los Angeles than 12 years in San Francisco. Hmmm. After 30 years in the Bay Area, I made the radical decision to relocate to Los Angeles. Initially, it seemed impossible. But I told myself, “you’re only 65, you have 20 years left, why not?”
My friend was right. There are so many opportunities for artists here if you work hard, reach out and connect with different communities of artists.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No artist’s road is smooth. There are a lot of obstacles along the way. In order to be an artist it is necessary to work part-time so you have time in the studio. This means that you have to live on half the salary of a normal person. This means you have to live in untraditional places or industrial neighborhoods. This means you might have to rent out your living space to send your kid to college, like I did and stay with relatives or short-term cheap rentals. You must be resourceful and resilient and you must have a strong stomach for rejections.
Husbands/boyfriends may put up with your meager contribution to the family income for a while, your absence while at a residencies and your commitment to making art, but not always. Then you may have an artist for a boyfriend which comes with a different set of problems.
Even into one’s golden years, one must rent a room out in my house on Airbnb or create a body of small affordable sculptures to help make ends meet. However, nothing has prevented me from the disciple and the optimism that is necessary to live the abundance and rewards of a creative life.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
To create the sculptures, I used found cardboard boxes garnered from foraging the streets or in wine stores, which I cut into strips and stapled together over a cardboard armature. The color of the box, not paint animates the surface. The text printed on the boxes subverts the meaning of advertising to reveal “text messages”. The sculptures can be viewed as a critique of contemporary consumerist culture but that is not my sole intent. They are instilled with a psychological component, neither entirely representational nor abstract, but something in between.
Working on individual series of works, I chronicle my personal life and the events of our time using the sculptures as allegories. Universal connectivity, joy, wonder as well as a sharing of sorrows and crises are themes I work with to contribute to the contemporary zeitgeist of this wild and glorious world.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
The most important characteristic that has contributed to my success as an artist is my ability to balance time in the studio and time on the computer. Shepherding my work to a broader audience is one of my mottos. If I don’t work to get my work seen nobody will know about it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://annwebersculpture.com/
- Instagram: @ann_weber_sculpture
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-weber-5079896/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-BRsOWVn8Ub0nHwVZMVjGA
Image Credits
Ray Carofano, Gene Ogami, Osceola Refetoff
