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Worms, 1999
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My studio is a tiny room in an old trailer in Lancaster, Texas. And considering that Bonnard painted in his bathroom, Pollock in a barn, I'm hoping for great things.
Descending from Viking barbarians, Royal Scots, Irish pig wranglers, German preachers, farmers and violin makers, grizzled bear hunters and respectable country doctors, born and raised in Southeast Texas, my vision might be described as dark humor with nice manners. I didn't have the creative advantage of a bad childhood.
Jenny and Bob Huey financed a very fine education and in 1978, I received the bachelor of arts degree in painting from the University of Dallas. (I make this assumption despite the fact that the diploma is in Latin.) Against ardent suggestions from wise professors, I chose not to enroll in graduate school. It was a decision delivered with thoughtful and lucid deliberation. "Those graduate painters are weird!" I thought. If only I'd realized then what I know now — I'm weird, too!
Ann Huey
If I Lived to 102 I Might Be An Artist, 2001
acrylic, 60 x 30 inches
A drone in the world of commerce for many years, I maintained a freelance business in not-so-fine art. And even though life has no meaning, I wanted some anyway — to paint and make things, creep people out, astound, bewilder, entertain, make messes, run with the scissors and be unemployed (which I became early in 1999).
In my painting and two-dimensional work, I like to tell stories, often silly and macabre, often with busy descriptions of exaggerated figurative images, sometimes neo-impressionistic or pseudo-realistic (sometimes neither neo nor pseudo, but post or pre maybe) — whether the subject is of the elite or the humanity that gets folded into the creases of society.
Television is a great source of ideas, for in it lies all the world's trouble and salvation. (The gray square that is at once a whole and a black hole.) During a residency in Connecticut, however, I decided that the most profound subject matter is the bits of nature we squash every day — creeping, climbing, flying, rotting, buzzing bits. Beauty unimpaired by culture, un-enhanced by technology, unhampered by emotion, that is really too divine to interpret, though we try anyway.
I prefer the speed of acrylic, the intensity of pastel, and, occasionally, the toxic luxury of oil.
My favorite artistic period was The Awkward Age — a genre bursting, yet fraught with vague albeit specific conundrums of shrill color tedium and grotesque adolescent elaborations of nothingness.
Since I hadn't painted much or entered a juried show until 1999, there is a big gap in my biography. I was just resting up for the daily nervous breakdowns I have now as a "serious artist". And I cherish each moment of freedom to have them.
During such moments, I often think of this quote by George Moore:
"It does not matter how badly you paint,
so long as you don't paint badly like other people."
Ann 1969, 2002 |
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Exhibitions
2008
Fierce Group exhibition JR Compton, Curator 14th Street Gallery Plano TX
Cracked - Two Chicks' Eggsabition with Julia McLain-Echols Bath House Cultural Center Dallas TX2007
Pushing the Envelope, A Drawing Show Sally Sprout Fine Art Tower Gallery Houston TX
Bath House exhibitions: Outside the Lines 7, Absurdity, Salon du Fit
Hunting Art Prize Juried exhibition Houston TX finalist
The Velvet Underwear Solo exhibition AMS Production Group Dallas TX
Pearls of Wisdom? Solo exhibition Pearl (jazz club and art gallery) Dallas TX
LaReunion Juried exhibition benefiting LaReunion Artist Residency Oak Cliff Dallas TX2006
The Art Conspiracy Show Sarah Jane Semrad, Curator Longhorn Ballroom Dallas TX
88 Numbers Group exhibition Kettle Art Gallery Dallas TX
A Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures Solo exhibition Lillian Bradshaw Gallery Dallas Public Library
Bath House exhibitions: Dia de los Muertos, Anniversary Show, Salon du Fit
Dia de los Muertos Invitational exhibition International Cultural Center Texas Tech Lubbock TX
Out of the Loop Invitational exhibition Melissa Sauvage, Curator Water Tower Theater Addison TX2005
The Art Conspiracy Show PigeonStone project Texas Theater Dallas, TX
Koelsch Gallery with Vanessa Estrada and Amy Evans Houston TX
Bath House exhibitions: Día de los Muertos, Last Winter, I Dreamed…, Salon du Fit
City of Dallas Public Art Program Finalist
Texas National Juried exhibition Juror: James Surls Stephen F. Austin University Nacogdoches TX2004
Texan Book of the Dead Solo exhibition Bath House Cultural Center Dallas TX
Art in the Metroplex Juried exhibition (Rockette Science Club Award) Juror: Larry Rinder California College of the Arts Texas Christian University Fort Worth TX
Artists at Weir Farm Three-person exhibition Weir Farm Trust Wilton CT
Outside the Lines4 Juried exhibition Bath House
Dishman Competition International juried exhibition (Third place) Juror: Dewey F. Mosby Colgate University Lamar University Beaumont TX2003
Outside the Lines 3 Juried exhibition Bath House
Women and Their Work Two-person exhibition with Debra Rueb Austin TX
Texas National Juried exhibition (Honorable mention) Stephen F. Austin State University NacogdochesTX
Plano Art Association National Juried Exhibition Plano TX
Dishman Competition International juried exhibition (Honorable mention) Juror: W. Jackson Rushing University of Houston Lamar University Beaumont TX2002
Figurative Works 02 National juried exhibition Juror: Olga Viso Curator Hirshhorn Museum Armory Art Center West Palm Beach FL
Bath House exhibitions: I Don't Know Much About Art, But I Know What I Like (a show about clichés)
Three-person exhibition Outside the Lines 2, La Loteria Juried exhibitions reserved seating Group
invitational exhibition Terri Stone Curator (also exhibited at The ArtCentre of Plano)
New Texas Talent Juror: Murray Smither Craighead-Green Gallery Dallas TX
Works on Paper National Juried Exhibition National juried exhibition LSU Union Art Gallery Louisiana State University Baton Rouge LA
Texas and Neighbors 2002 Irving Art Association Annual Juried Exhibition (First in oil/acrylic/pastel) Irving TX2001
Off the Wall Four-person exhibition Melissa Sauvage, Curator Continental Gallery Dallas TX
Bath House exhibitions: Día de los Muertos, Outside the Lines
W McKinney Avenue Contemporary Annual Member Show
Outside the Lines Juried exhibition Bath House
Texas and Neighbors 2001 Irving Art Association Annual Juried Exhibition
Plano Art Association National Juried Exhibition Plano TX2000
Pastel Society of the Southwest's 2000 National Open Fort Worth TX
Texas and Neighbors 2000 Irving Art Association Annual Juried Exhibition
Plano Art Association National Juried Exhibition (second in pastel)1999
Critic's Choice Juror: James Surls Dallas Visual Arts Center Sixteenth Annual Call for Entries African American Museum Dallas TX
Gallery