PSBA Member SPOTLIGHT

Q: Tell us about your history as an artist. When did you begin making art?

Like a lot of women of my generation, we made our own clothes. My mother got me started when I was about four, making my own doll clothes. I actually enjoyed sewing—I liked the hard parts, like fitting a sleeve or making darts. That was when I began thinking about three-dimensional stuff.

In college, I majored in Humanities. After graduating, I shot myself right out to San Francisco. I had wanted to work as an editor in a publishing house; I applied to every one I could find. I had some pretty awful office jobs.  And then I got laid off from one of the awful jobs, and I started taking ceramics classes with a community group. We did slip casting.That was super fun; I made myself a set of dishes. Later, I took a class in Berkeley, throwing pots. Within three or four months, I got a potter’s wheel kit that I kept in the backyard.

When Nixon was voted in for the second time, I knew it was time to leave. My boyfriend at the time and I  drove up to Canada. We got married two months later in Vancouver. We weren’t able to find jobs, so we moved to Bellingham, where I found a pottery cooperative which had been started by a conscientious objector—you get a sense of what it was like in those times. I stayed there for five years. It was fun to have colleagues and to learn from other people. After a few years, the group decided to build a new kiln—I was right on that project. I loved the structure, and I loved learning the mechanics of it. I don’t remember how we got the money together to do that. That’s the biggest thing I ever built. I like pottery because it’s three-dimensional. I was throwing pretty much every day. I liked taking this soft, malleable material and turning it into a rock.

I was interested in sgraffito pottery,where you coat the outside of the leather-hard clay with a slip and carve the design through it. I was really interested in old Chinese designs. I did a lot of peonies. 

Q: Making your way along the Pacific coast, how did you land in Tacoma?

After five years of not having much money at all, making pottery, a friend from the cooperative, and I decided to start doing fairs around Bellingham. I bought an old truck, and she bought the materials to make shelving, and off we’d go to the fairs. Still not making much money, I finally got to the point where I couldn’t live like that anymore. I wanted some new shoes and tires for my old truck. I took a job through a temporary agency with a bank trust department, which was going through a computer conversion. I became the person to fill out the complicated forms for trust accounting. I found out I was pretty good at it. 

The bank liked me because I would just do the work, but I wasn’t being offered a permanent job. I asked HR why. The next day, the HR staffer filled me in: “An, it’s those funny clothes you wear.” So I went to Goodwill for a new wardrobe, and then I was offered a permanent job. I was eventually hired by the bank trust department full-time. I moved on to another bank in Seattle and then Tacoma as I was promoted.

Q: You have this really interesting trajectory both in earning a livelihood and in the arts with ceramics. What led you to book arts? And to PSBA?

A friend from the University of Puget Sound was interested in book arts. She borrowed the Penland Book of Handmade Books from the library. We were astounded. Here was another way to work in three dimensions.

Rochelle Monner was also a strong influence. Rochelle seemed to have some kind of magic of turning a person interested in books into a book artist. She encouraged me every time I was around her. For me, it fit like a glove.

I, too, was a member from inception, served on the board for a few years, served on the curator's team for two years, and organized a workshop with Tim Ely.

Q: Can you talk about a few books of yours that are important to you?

First, I chose my Leonardo book, Leonardo’s Platonic Solids 2012, because I made it pretty early on. I found out he had illustrated a book on mathematics based on the Platonic solids: earth, air, fire, water, and space. I enjoyed thinking about the shapes of his illustrations and what structure to use. This book went into either the first or second year’s PSBA exhibition. Rochelle said: “An, you should make an edition of that.” It became my first edition; I made five.

Galileo’s Discoveries with His Telescope 2016

Staying with my interest in mathematics, art history, and philosophy, I chose my Galileo book. The images are a progression of the details he discovered as he continued to improve his telescopes. First, he was able to see the moon and its craters, then Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Sun. I was fascinated to follow the story of his discoveries.

Q: How did you do the research on this?

I had been accepted for a residency outside of Assisi in Italy, and I knew I wanted to do a book about Galileo. The timing was perfect. It took me a long time to find images of his notes for the background, which I was able to find on the internet. The images of the moon, the planets, and the sun are from his published books. I cut soft cut blocks and printed them in Italy.

Hagia Sophia 2014

Q: Tell us about this Hagia Sophia book.

PSBA has had wonderful workshops all through the years. One of the instructors was Kevin Steele, who came up with the multi-accordion structure. The architecture of the Hagia Sophia moves me in a special way, and I was able to use what I learned from his workshop to create this book about the Hagia Sophia at sunrise.

Q: Who would you identify as the mentors or artists who inspired you?

My grandmother for sure. I remember her handmade quilts. My grandmother would spend the summer piecing and the winter quilting. When we would visit in the summer, she’d say, “Let me show you,” and she’d take down last year’s quilt, fluff it out, and it was just like going into someone’s garden. She was the person who made me want to make things that were beautiful and useful.

Then there were my PSBA friends: Rochelle, Debbie Greenwood, and you, Lucia.

Q: Major influences as a book artist?

Heidi Kyle has been a major influence, for sure with one inventive structure after another.

Q: What influenced your aesthetics?

I think I was Chinese in a former life. Studying art history in college was primarily learning the progression of Western Art. The first time I was exposed to Asian art was in San Francisco. They have a wonderful Asian Art Museum. The proportions of things, and the difference between Asian and Western aesthetics was so clear to me. I definitely lean toward the Asian side. That even influenced the way I spell my name.

When I studied Chinese calligraphy, I learned that the basis of the character An was a woman in a house and that it stands for peace. During one of those early PSBA playdates, I sat next to MalPina Chan, and she had a book where she used this character. Her work influenced me a lot.

Q: Can you describe your studio and some of your work?

The portrait above shows my “dry” workspace, where I cut and design things. I think in here. I’m an artist in this room, and this is also where I meditate. Most everything I need is here: papers, glues, acrylics, and tools. The kitchen is where I do the wet and messy work.