THE HISTORY
Anne’s careers have given her a unique perspective on her current work. With a Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa, Anne moved to New York City and worked independently as an intaglio printmaker at the Printmaking Workshop and MOK Studio. She participated in many curated exhibits in the US and internationally.
The next sixteen years Anne devoted herself to social services work in New York City. A life- long learner, she went back to school to earn her culinary degree and used it to provide great meals for senior citizens in Manhattan. From 1983 to 1986, Anne divided her time between her duties as chef, supervisor and manager at the University of Michigan and her Bed and Breakfast venture in Barmouth, Wales, U.K. In 2003, Anne retired from her University of Michigan duties as the Director of University Unions Food Services – to continue and expand her next career as a fiber artist.
John began his work career as a teacher of English and spent his summers as a steel worker to pay off his student loans.
In the mid-1970’s John joined a hotel management group and spent the next several years working in more than 30 states in a variety of hotels. In 1980 he joined Marriott as a general manager of several properties. In 1990, John answered an ad for a position as general manager/director at the University of Michigan’s Executive Education Center. Anne Flora was his first interviewer!
They were married in 1992!!
John supplied the accounting, marketing, driving and support for Anne’s artistic creations.
John passed away in 2013 and he is sorely missed by Anne – his best friend and partner.
I have been an artist, in one medium or another, since I was seventeen. As an art student, I fell in love with the discipline of learning how to convey what I was seeing with accuracy and skill. After the usual struggles, I was able to express my emotions on paper, canvas and copper plate. In my studies with Mauricio Lasansky, he emphasized analyzing composition and layers of texture so intensively that I would often take 5 months to complete a plate. Along with my art education, I studied modern dance, costuming and choreography. The discipline of the training appealed to me. I was fascinated with the joy of movement, color and rhythm. Dance was a sort of moving composition to me!After my studies at Iowa, I went to New York City and began independent printmaking work at the Printmaking Workshop. Exposure to an international group of printmakers, the sharing of ideas and the opportunity to have my work shown internationally was a heady experience.
However, the need to support myself was a factor in transitioning from printmaking to working as a social services caseworker and program director at a senior center in the inner city. I then went back to school in culinary art. This was a natural endeavor for me – I loved the hands on aspect of my culinary studies with its emphasis on taste, color, and texture. Food is certainly an art form! After several interesting interludes as a chef in Wales and owner of a bed and breakfast there, I returned to the United States and worked for twenty years at the University of Michigan.
I felt the lack of creativity in my life, and began exploring different surface design mediums. In 2001, I fell in love with feltmaking after taking a workshop with Chad Alice Hagen. I began creating wearable art. I became fascinated with the crossover in mediums and started combining various materials with felt to create two-dimensional works. My process emphasizes discipline, emotions, the vitality and movement in my compositions, the richness of textures, and the bold and vibrant colors that I use.
I like to think that my work embodies my rich life experiences along with my lifelong studies in the visual and tactile arts.