Ninth Street Women
A discussion and display by Ann Wolken, Venice artist, featuring discussion of the book “Ninth Street Women” by Mary Gabrielle
November 12, 2022 5pm
Village Well
9900 Culver Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
The meaning of the belated recognition of these women artists to the artist Ann Wolken will be highlighted, along with other books about their work, their teachers, their influences and friends will be discussed, along with places to see their work in Los Angeles.
Ann Wolken is a narrative artist working in Venice since 1976. She is the recipient of seven Artists in Communities Grants with the California Arts Council and has completed two murals for the Downtown Women’s Center in LA. Ann is a graduate of Smith College and the University of Oregon. She has been studying “Ninth Street Women” for the past two years and it came to represent for Ann all the women of her mother’s generation who failed to get recognition in their own lifetimes.
Ann will be interviewed by her daughter, Cassandra McGrath, singer-songwriter and
high school English teacher based in Los Angeles. A native Angelino, she grew up in a house full of her mother’s paintings and is honored to interview her.
OUR ODYSSEYS
Class of ’69 / 50th Reunion
Smith College
May 7 – June 1, 2019
Oresman Gallery
Brown Fine Arts Center
20 Elm Street, Northampton, MA 01063
Ann Wolken
Paintings
Venice Art Crawl
March 17-May 16, 2016
Small World Books
1407 Ocean Front Walk
Venice, CA 90291
Ann Wolken
The Broken Violin String
Groundwork Coffee Indie Garage Gallery
2908 Main Street
Santa Monica, California 90405
Wednesday 21st January – Saturday 21st March, 2015
The broken violin string is a metaphor for healing the broken pieces that exist within our own lives. The series was inspired by a real event that took place one time when I was attending a concert by the LA Phil at Disney Hall in downtown Los Angeles. The soloist, Carrie Dennis, actually had the string of her viola break right in the middle of a performance. She instantly switched instruments with the fellow behind her so she could continue playing the piece. He in turn repaired the instrument.
This suite of watercolors also references to meditation which I do at Saint Monica’s with Jim Finley and at the New Camaldolese Hermitage in Big Sur. The flight of stairs in from a series I did of my grandmother’s house in Pittsburgh that I did in 1980-81. My grandmother was the oldest person I ever knew. She was born in 1880 or so. We are always walking up the stairs of our lives.