About the artistAnn Forbush holds a Fine Arts degree from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, with a double major in painting and photography.After studying textile printing at Boston University's Program in Artisanry, she worked as a textile designer and product manager for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston's national mail order catalogue. Since that time, she has collaborated with Worldwise Education, a greeting card publisher and is involved in freelance work for two local theatres. Ms. Forbush is currently a printmaking and mixed media instructor at the DeCordova Museum School in Lincoln, Massachusetts, specializing in teaching k-12 art teachers. She is on the board of The Monotype Guild of New England (MGNE) and the Executive Committee of the Watertown Children's Theatre. She is an active member of the Cambridge Art Association and the Concord Art Association. Since the year 2000, Ms. Forbush has mounted four solo exhibitions and has participated in over 50 group shows including four juried book exhibits in Australia. She has received grants to create artist's books from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Watertown Community Foundation. In 2009, Ms. Forbush was selected to participate in Home Is Where the Art Is, an exhibition of commissioned artwork that was exhibited at the Boston Convention Center prior to permanent installation at the Kent Street Mansion, a residence owned by Boston's Children's Hospital. In June, Ms. Forbush was accepted to the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts to study bookbinding. Her work is in the collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. and private collections throughout New England. About the processBoth monoprinting and collage techniques share a spontaneous, tactile quality that invites an experimental approach. Unlike more traditional forms of printmaking where the goal is to create identical images, monoprints contain inherent variation.To make a monotype, I apply ink to a smooth printing plate using rollers, brushes and paper stencils. Then, I place a piece of damp paper on top of the inked plate and run them through a press. My one-of-a-kind prints often go through the press many times to build up layers of ink and images. This process can be very intuitive, and allows me to incorporate a variety of materials and "happy accidents"! Artist's statementI have always been fascinated by "marks" that living things leave behind in the form of fossils, vessels, shadows and handwriting. These elements recur in my prints. Most recently, I've incorporated the idea of "marks" left by the spoken word: remembered conversations, known quotes, personal admonitions. Often, my visual ideas spring from verbal sources that suggest a narrative without spelling out the whole story.Through the use of delicate paper stencils and carved blocks, I have developed a cache of personal icons that take on new meanings depending on their context. Some of my stencils are easily recognized objects, while others are more ambiguous or metaphorical. The stencils can be re-used, but only for a short time; this transient quality gives them a "life span" all their own. Solo Exhibitions2007 Espalier Prints & CollagesHarvard University Lutheran Church, Cambridge, MA, 26 pieces 2004 Tableau Prints by Ann Forbush dEmios Gallery, Belmont, MA, 29 photographs 2003 Ladder Boxes & Monotypes MacPhail Architectural Collaborative, Belmont, MA, 38 pieces 2001 Ann Forbush Monoprints Concord Library Gallery, Concord, MA, 28 prints Awards and Grants2005 Watertown Community Foundation Grant to fund an outdoor installation which was later reconfigured for display at 10 additional venues in 20062003 Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant to create an edition of artist books 2002 Forbes Museum, Jury Award for mixed media work Selected Juried Exhibitions2008 MGNE National ShowAttleboro Museum, Attleboro, MA Juror: Aprile Gallant, Smith College Art Museum 2008 Northeast Prize Show Cambridge Art Association Juror: Nicholas Baume, Curator Institute of Contempory Art, Boston 2008 Back to Basics: Artist Books 2008 Noosa Regional Gallery, Noosa, Australia 2008 Different Voices: the Unique Print Courthouse Art Center, Kingston, RI Juror: Katherine French, Director of The Danforth Museum of Art 2007 RED: More than a color Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA Juror: Jane Farver, Director MIT List Visual Arts Center 2006 Artists BooKs: 10+Beyond Noosa Regional Gallery, Noosa, Australia 2005 Stretching the Boundaries Cambridge Artists Cooperative, Harvard Sq Juror: Sharon McCartney, Boston Book Arts 2005 Image as Text, Text as Image Noosa Regional Gallery, Noosa, Australia 2004 Travelogue ART.3 Gallery, Manchester NH 2003 National Prize Show Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA Juror: Marc Pachter, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Museum 2002 Pushing the Envelope Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA Juror: Robert Siegelman, Professor, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 2002 Works of Imagination Regional Gallery Noosa, Australia 2002 The Harbor Islands Guild of Boston Artists, juried auction Juror: Jonathan Fairbanks, MFA, Boston, Painting Dept. 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