Artist Statement

My work consists of handmade books, acrylic paintings, mixed media collages and drawings which integrate both inner and outer dimensions. Although the images are representational, they are combined in a purely imaginative way which would never occur in real life. The result is the creation of symbolic landscapes which focus on emotional and psychological journeys, the feminine principle and environmental issues.

These visual stories may depict cycles in nature, a transformational change or a dramatic life event. My goal is to explore the dynamic relationship between the human psyche and the external world as well as our connection to the great web of life. Current works-in-progress juxtapose both the beauty of nature and its ongoing destruction due to overpopulation, industrialization and global warming.

Education

2009-13 Studies Quinton Bemiller, Los Angeles, CA
1977-79 Research The Dinner Party Project, Los Angeles, CA
1975-76 Studies Feminist Studio Workshop, Los Angeles, CA
1969 MFA University of Colorado, Boulder
1966 BA Knox College, Galesburg, IL

Bio

Ann Isolde is a visual artist who has been involved in the feminist art movement since 1975. She was a member of Front Range Women in the Visual Arts in Boulder, CO before moving to Los Angeles to attend the Feminist Studio Workshop at The Woman’s Building. From there she went on to facilitate the historical research for the “heritage floor” for The Dinner Party project conceived by Judy Chicago.

Several years after that project ended, she joined the Southern California Women’s Caucus for Art. Isolde has been an active member since 1985 and has served as President and Program Committee Chair. She is currently the Artist Registry Coordinator and Equity in the Arts Committee Chair as well as being a member of the Eco-Art Collective. In 2010 she received honors from the Pacific Region of the Women’s Caucus for Art for outstanding contributions to her chapter. Much of her energy within the organization has focused on various educational programs.

In 1996 she moderated both a UCLA Extension conference on “The Making of The Dinner Party” and a panel on Excellence and Equity at the SCWCA conference “Beyond the Backlash: Feminisms for the 1990s” at the UCLA Hammer Museum. She organized a panel on Career Phases for the SCWCA symposium on “Bold, Young, and Old: Women in the Arts” at the UCLA Hammer Museum in 2002 and participated on the organizing committee for the SCWCA symposium on “Women Making It in the Arts” at the USC School of Fine Arts in 2004.

Isolde played an integral role on the steering committee for Multiple Vantage Points: Southern California Women Artists, 1980-2006, an exhibition co-sponsored by SCWCA and the Southern California Council for the National Museum of Women in the Arts at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in 2007. She was a member of the organizing committee for the exhibition Women Artists on Immigration: Crossing Borders, Confronting Barriers, Bridging Identities, which was on view at the Korean Cultural Center of Los Angeles in 2009 during the WCA and College Art Association conferences.

After retiring from the Getty Research Institute in 2007, Isolde spent four years studying acrylic painting techniques with Quinton Bemiller. She has shown her work in Southern California, Colorado, New Hampshire and Texas. She was one of 49 artists included in the Emphasis Santa Monica exhibition at Santa Monica College’s Pete and Susan Barrett Art Gallery in 2008 in conjunction with the grand opening of the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage at the SMC Performing Arts Center. In 2014, she was one of four artists who had individual solo shows in the Color, Form and Abstraction exhibition at Kellogg University Art Gallery, Cal Poly Pomona.

In 2018, Isolde collaborated with SCWCA members Sandra Mueller, Anne Gauldin and Susan King on a book project titled Personal Voices/Cultural Visions: Conversations in the Visual Arts Community, Los Angeles 1994-1996. It is currently available on Amazon.com.

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