Growing up in New York City amidst her mother’s fabric swaths and paint samples of interior design, Annie discovered her happiest moments in childhood existed in color, texture and form. Her early years were full of sketching acclaimed family portraits, winning art contests and painting her high school prom backdrops.

Leaving the Fine Arts program at the University of Arizona to marry and have children, she stumbled upon her professional graphics career when her boss and trainer failed to return to work. Learning from the ground up, as replacement lead artist at Grove Printing company she later became the Art Director for Fiber Arts Magazine in Asheville, NC.

Due to fortune and family, she landed, across the country, on Bainbridge Island, WA and continued her free lance graphics work. She then wound her way North to the verdant Skagit Valley where she won the bid for the 1987 Skagit Valley Tulip Festival design. After later serving as the Art Director for Cascadian Farms, she followed the call of the Sun, and adventure, and returned to the textural inspiration of Arizona.

Under the Adult Degree Program of Prescott College, Annie renovated the 1883 historic Hale House. She graduated with her BFA in Architecture as Art in 1997.

Working with at-risk youth, Annie was introduced to the intensive grind of handmade paper. Discovering her affinity with the medium and falling in love with its sculptural potential, she embarked on a practice that has spanned the last 25 years. Annie has developed her own processes and methods aided by the particular Arizona climate, incorporating the wet summer monsoons, long hot dry days and the brief but startling freeze of winter.

Annie’s unique interpretation of creation, realized through scientific observation, collection of bio available materials and experimentation and fierce human strength and determination, leads any viewer into a world of beauty and shared celebration of the natural wonder that surrounds us.