* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Ann Marshall grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated from School of Visual Arts in New York City. She has worked in a gallery, illustrated children’s books and traveled nationally and internationally as an ethnographer and consumer anthropologist. She now works as a portrait and fine artist.
The first impression of Ann Marshall’s art is one of startling beauty. Her work is not cheaply sentimental, splashy, nor particularly visceral. You may not notice it in a populated room for some time–and it it would probably be lost in the sea of oversized canvases and booming video installations that characterize most contemporary exhibits. In fact, it’s probably best viewed in a private space, in the solitude of a small and quiet room like the one in which it was created. Marshall’s art whispers rather than shouts, which is somewhat like the artist herself, easygoing and relaxed, if a little reserved. Like her subjects, there’s an elusiveness behind her immediate demeanor. Taller than most, with a mass of curly brown hair, oversized earrings, and an I-got -lost-on-the-way-to-the-Renaissance-Fair sort of look, she stands out in a crowd. But her easy smile reveals an approachable warmth rather than pretension. She admits people who meet her are often surprised when they finally find out what she does, and usually tell her she seems too normal to be an artist (“I never know quite what to make of that comment,” she admits).
