PVCC Adjunct Art Faculty Ann Morton has been featured in New Times as one of 100 Creative forces in Phoenix. Morton teaches Color (ART 113), a 3-credit evening class at Paradise Valley Community College. Her class seeks to find visual solutions to a variety of problems concerning color in two and three dimensions and modes of color appearances, including light and effects in design and theory of design.
On her website, annmortonaz.com, Morton says: “What I hope to capture in my work is a myriad of reflections on the collective culture of our time. I think about themes of consumption, homogenization, marginalization, obsolescence – cultural, social and political concerns through the filter of my own experience as a female born in 1950′s America. Morton relies on”serendipity” of found fabrics and non-traditional materials, rather than re-using or recycling, to act as the catalyst for the creation of meaning in her work and make it accessible to any audience while communicating messages about social issues.
Morton describes herself as an “emerging artist, recovering from a long professional career as a successful graphic designer.” Using traditional, fiber-based techniques, she indulges in a perspective of thought about American culture and her own experience as an American female of the Baby Boomer generation.
From 1983-1990, she was owner, principal and creative director for Hubbard and Hubbard Design and founded Thinking Caps, a Phoenix environmental graphic design studio. In December 2006, she decided to to pursue her voice as an artist and in Spring 2012 completed her Master of Fine Arts in the Fibers program at Arizona State University.
Her artwork entitled “Collective Cover,” is part of the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art’s Artprize exhibition “Somewhere Else.” This long-term project on display in Grand Rapids, Mich., is generated by the finding of lost or abandoned objects conjuring imagined stories surrounding the real-life person to whom it was once connected. Morton’s fiber-based items in the Collective Cover Project were randomly found along roadways or in the environment by her and her colleagues.
“What I hope to capture in my work is a myriad of reflections of the collective culture of our time. Thru the filter of my own experience as a white female born in1950′s America, I explore themes of assumed entitlements, homogenization, marginalization, and human obsolescence – social divides we’ve come to accept as normal cultural paradigms,” Morton says of her art. “In questioning this acceptance, I recognize the insignificant — marginalized found objects and disenfranchised people. Driven by a desire to make right, my work relies on my own handwork, but also orchestrates handwork of homeless individuals in my community.”
Morton’s art exhibitions include:
- Currently on exhibition currently in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
“O espaço entre” (The Space Between), Largo das Artes; Curated by Martha Pagy and Ted Decker
- “Collective Cover,” September 18 – October 19, 2012
“Somewhere Else”, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art; (ArtPrize), Grand Rapids, Mich.
- Jan.18 – Feb. 8, 2013
“Unentitled – Inaugural Edition”, Modified Arts; Phoenix
MFA graduate merges art with social concerns, Arizona State University News
Social Identities Lost and Found in Ann Morton’s “Unentitled,” Phoenix New Times