The Anne Sires Gallery

Welcome to the Virtual Art Gallery featuring Ceramic Artist M. Anne Sires. - About Anne - After a successful business career and raising her family, Anne Sires began her Art career at the age of 71 at the Santa Fe Clay facility, which occupies a 10,000 square-foot warehouse in the historic Rail yard District in downtown Santa Fe New Mexico. The facility, a gallery, fully equipped studio and home to twenty resident ceramic artists, year-round classes and workshops, provided an inspirational and creative community of ceramists. Sires became interested in ceramics through her son J. Paul Sires who studied ceramics and was pursuing a career in ceramics and sculpture. Anne had always wanted to study something artistic in grammar school but little was offered other than sewing classes. In 2000, Anne retired from her career in banking and moved to Santa Fe with her husband Dr. Edward Chester a renowned art collector and noted surgeon. Santa Fe with its history of the arts and artistic environment was the perfect location for Anne to pursue her unfulfilled creative interests. Anne’s first ceramic class was frustrating and clumsy. The physical demands of working with clay and the lack of control both with the material and in the firing process often left her with a sense of total failure. Anne’s small successes and the camaraderie of the studio helped to support her in her early trials. The moist clay and studio mates kept her coming back. Anne spent four years developing her skills in hand building, glazing and the application of colored slip as her main technique for her artistic expression. Then in 2004 Anne moved to Tucson Arizona and enrolled in accredited courses at Pima Community College and studied with Hirotsune Tashima. Hiro studied ceramics at Alfred College of Ceramics in Alfred NY and in Japan at Osaka University of Arts. The fact that Anne was years older than her classmates didn’t bother her; she enjoyed the youthful perspective and would occasionally comment, “let them try to keep up”. At Pima College under Hiro Tashima Anne was required to study a variety of historic ceramic artists and began to open up to the endless possibilities that ceramic materials could provide. Anne studied the California clay movement of the sixties as well as many historic ceramists. The influences of such artists as Pete Voulkos, Robert Arneson John Mason, Otto Natzler, Bernard Leach, and Marilyn Levine, may not be recognizable in her work but their influence was more in the opening up of possibilities that clay could provide. The works of Jun Kaneko, Ken Price, Akio Takamori, Betty Woodman, Adrian Saxe, Viola Frey, influenced Sires in her use of form and of color, breaking down ideas of cone 10 reduction firing. Sires discovered the use of brighter colors at the lower temperatures and the use of mason stains in colored slips and under glazing. Sires also utilized the taboo concept of applying non-fired color to bisque fired and vitrified ceramic works. Beatrice wood, and Susan Peterson Influenced Sires by being examples of artists and women who’s careers and exploration of ceramics continued until their death. Today Anne Sires is 82, her work is found mainly in private collections. In 2010, Anne was part of an exhibition in Tucson, AZ., where her recent work influenced by the folk art masks of Mexico was featured publicly for the first time. The masks were well received and continue to be some of the most sought after pieces of her work. Anne continues to work in ceramics, recently commenting that she will be unveiling new works in the Summer of 2011. She also continues to enjoy her life in Tucson, Arizona with her husband Edward and Dog Nicky. ** A special Thanks to the private collectors who made available their works for this exhibit. *** Press and contact requests Shawn Sires at the thesires@comcast.net - - VISITORS -