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In the Golden Grotto with Ann Wood
An interview with Meow Wolf Houston collaborating artist Ann Wood on finding your artistry, art history, and her upcoming piece.
August 8, 2024
Ann Wood in her studio space. Photo by Marco Torres.
As we count down to opening our newest Meow Wolf later this year in Houston, we're excited to spotlight some of the artists contributing to this expansion. We sat down with Ann Wood to talk about the journey, the inspiration, and Ann’s upcoming work for Meow Wolf Houston.
Let’s jump in. Can you introduce yourself?
My name’s Ann Wood and I’ve been making art stuff since I was little. I went to college for it and I went to grad school for it, and then just kind of kept trucking and so here I am.
So you started when you were little. What was the first piece or dabblings in art you made?
My mom was a painter – she did sick watercolors and she was also a florist and made these big huge flower arrangements – so I always was surrounded by that kind of stuff. I never felt like I was as good as her so I would draw in secret. Then, when I got in high school I was like, “I guess I’ll take art classes,” and I enjoyed them but it wasn’t until I went to college that I realized it was my calling. I thought I was gonna be a writer and then I realized after half a semester of creative writing that it wasn’t my thing. It was too hard. Things that you love shouldn’t be hard, you know. I mean it should be challenging but it wasn’t for me. I realized that I needed to be an art major and then that was that and it was the perfect fit.
It’s always interesting. You’re told to pursue your passions and then your passions become a job and it’s like, “Ooh I don’t know about this one”.
Exactly. Like maybe I’m wrong. The things that you love and you do should come to you in a way that’s rewarding and not just making you upset all the time. It was a long time ago when I realized that. That’s how I got here.
I understand that. Specifically with things you love, moderation is a part of loving it as well.
[laughs] I don’t practice much moderation unfortunately.
It’s all in or nothing.
Seriously!
How did you find the specific style you have now? What was that journey like?
I have a BFA in Painting and an MFA in Painting. I thought that I was a 2D person. And I really do like painting, but I can pinpoint a specific moment that made me kind of become a sculptor. I had been in this advanced painting class and I had this professor I really respected, and he said, “If you make that same painting again, I’m gonna give you an F.” And he was kidding, like he wasn’t going to give me an F, but it scared me. He said “You have to try something else” and I was like, “Okay. Okay.”I guess I had been doing the same thing semester after semester. He brought in this wooden sculpture of a dog he made and it was real rudimentary. He said, “Paint on this,” and I painted it with my style I had been using, which was very thick, and I think from that moment on, any painting that I made became three dimensional. It became these wall-mounted objects and then they spilled off of the floor. By grad school, even though I was getting a painting MFA I was making sculptural wall pieces. That was all a long time ago but they really started developing into these free-standing big sculptures and installations.
I realized at some point that I can make things that I want to make. Sometimes I’d be held back by, “Oh I can’t do that!” but I realized that I know people who can help me. Accepting help to make some of the things that I make is important. Like, I’m not a real great carpenter but I have a friend who is excellent and he can do whatever I need.
I’m definitely inspired by art history which is also funny because I was never really that interested in art history. Like, I took the classes I needed to take but the more things that I saw in person, the more incredible they were– like these Baroque fountains and huge paintings. And so I really used it to kind of push the scale and the gaudiness of things and referenced some art historical paintings and monuments.
You mentioned it before but what or who were some people that encouraged you to explore your artwork. Any specific artists or pieces?
There’s a lot of artists in art history that inspire me like Caravaggio and things like that. But I’m more inspired by periods, I guess. Like, I am fascinated with Baroque and the drama of that growth period– so pretty much anything from that I’m into. I really like Rococo and over-the-top, embellished work like the Palace of Versailles, things like that really inspire me. Architecture, like Victorian architecture, things that are overly embellished, overly decorated are interesting to me. I don’t know if I can speak to specific artists but more like time periods and decorative objects.
Can you tell us about your piece in the upcoming Meow Wolf Houston?
Yeah so I’m making this – and this kinda goes along with what we were just talking about when it comes to art history places and objects – I’m making this little grotto. Grottos were these man-made caves with carved animals and fountains, real ornate and really pretty and they’re scattered throughout Europe. When I was traveling so long ago and saw some of these, it just kind of stuck in my head.
So I’m making this grotto, it looks kind of rocky and it’s all gold so that was inspired by the Palace of Versailles and the Rococo gold body stuff. It has this big huge Rococo-looking mirror that looks like it’s getting taken over by the rocks. There’s animal forms and a blue floor so it looks water-like. Lots of sparkle, and everything’s pretty much gold. And there’s some embroidery in there too.
I’m really into sewing and embroidering. All the paintings I make aren’t really paintings, they’re embroidered pieces and I pour plastic onto them and then they come off the wall and become sculptural anyway. So, I’m trying to bring that element in – a lot of embroidery. I use a lot of puffy paint as well.
It’s called The Golden Grotto but I’m also making a diorama that’s kind of outside of it which is called The Cake Boss. It’s going to tie into the grotto and be similar in the way that it looks, but a little different with some whites and rotating animal shapes and caked confectionary things. Kind of playing off the ideas of subtleties. They’re like these edible sculptures that only the aristocracy could eat. Like Kara Walker’s famous one, A Subtlety is that big sphinx. She is like a hero for that piece. So kind of playing off that idea. They’re gonna be like these edible-looking sculptures.
Knowing our guests, they might try to nibble a little bit.
It’s behind plexi so you’d have to break the glass but I wouldn’t put it past anyone.
How would you like guests to interact with your space or what do you want them to walk away from or feeling?
I sort of mentioned that The Golden Grotto has some lights like gonsons that are ornate that you can turn on & off. So it’s a very subtle direct interaction in that sense, like if you find the light switch you can turn the light on and kind of change the lighting in the room.
It’s a really small little space and I just want people to feel, I don’t want to say relaxed, but just kind of that zen that you feel when you see something like that and interact with nature. The Rococo time period that I love was all about making these things that seemed natural, but were very man-made. For example, in the Baroque time period, everything was very structured, like gardens were grids. And then Rococo comes along and is like, “Well we’re gonna make everything natural but it’s still very artificial,” if that makes sense. It’s like trying to make something look real, like it grew there but you’re planning it that way.
So I just want them to have that feeling that they’re interacting with nature but also to kind of feel like it’s artificial and fake if that makes sense.
What are you looking forward to most with install. Getting everything open and out into the world. What are you most looking forward to, of all of the stuff to come?
I have a love-hate relationship with installations. I love it, but you know that exhaustion you get with not knowing like what’s gonna happen. Anything that can go wrong, will. Like, it’s never smooth sailing. So, I’m looking forward to being done and being on a beach in Mexico if we’re being honest.
But it’s also really fun, the installation process. And I think one of the things about the work that I make, and probably most of the artists at Meow Wolf, is that I never really get to see it like how it’s going to look until it’s actually installed. I used to have this big warehouse as a studio and I could build really big things, but even then sometimes they’d all be in pieces and you just have to visualize. Now I’m in a smaller studio that I love, but it’s really making me think more in pieces so I haven’t really been able to see what it’s going to look like.
In fact, my assistant was here today and it was kind of the first day we were able to put some things together and we were like, “Oh I can finally feel like I can see it.” So I’m looking forward to seeing it come to life, be finished in one piece and not just have to visualize it in my head and try to explain it. Sometimes it’s hard to explain visual things in words, you know.
I absolutely agree with “The best part of it will be ‘Alright that’s done with. Let’s go on vacation’”
It’s been a long process and as much as I’m loving and am kind of in the zone right now and having fun with it, I’m also like, I don’t know if I’m weird or normal but right about now, all I start doing is thinking about other projects. My mind moves on. I’m still in the zone and doing stuff, but I tend to start thinking about, “What am I gonna make next?" and getting really excited about that. I’m like, “Come on, just finish and focus!” Or now I’m like, “I guess I need to organize my closet,” like I do not need to organize my closet right now but I get very focused on other things.
My mind always wanders with stuff too. How did you get involved with Meow Wolf?
Someone reached out to me in an email. I actually didn’t see the first email. I was helping my daughter move into her first apartment. She’s a senior at University of Miami, but at the time I was helping her move into the apartment and a lot was going on. And I got another email and I was like, “Oh I guess I should look at this,” and that was like the deadline and I was like, “Yeah I wanna do this!” But I just missed an email.
It’s just been really a good process. It’s been really fun. Everyone is super nice and easy to work with and laid back but also structured, which is how I am. I’ve really enjoyed it. They reached out to me and I was really lucky to kind of have this come to me.
You say there’s a lot of things on your mind and those are things that you expand upon with your art. What are some things that are on your mind that we could possibly see in the future or things that you’re dabbling with?
That spiral staircase made out of hair. I’ve made some houses like deer blind out of doll hair and I kind of wanna make a spiral staircase out of something that’s in my mind. Pieces that hang from the ceiling that are shaped like animals and look like clouds. When you look at them, you see clouds like, “Oh! There’s a squirrel!” Something like that. I’m also working on this big gazebo that’s a hook rug, so it looks textural but you can walk inside and it has a chandelier inside so like shelters, but girly like textural, fibery, flowery shelters. I’m also making something that’s like a Dutch still-life bouquet painting but it’s embroidered and hook rugged. It has one of those lights on it that is on “all good art” – like they put that big light at the top and then you know for sure that it’s art. I’m making something like that. So those things are on my mind right now.
There’s so much!
Lots of mirrors too. I kind of got obsessed with this mirror film stuff.
What’s mirror film?
It’s like wallpaper but you’re supposed to put it on glass and it makes it reflective and mirror-like, so I’ve been using a lot of that.
Okay last question. Say we’re sending out a time capsule to send out into space to talk to aliens and represent humanity. What would you send out?
To aliens?
Yeah! Say we’re opening a portal and we need to send some art out to show that this is humanity, this is us. What would you create?
I really create little snapshots, like I made a working fireplace that was all gaudy so maybe I’d send something like that, or what I’ve been thinking a lot about is like a spiral staircase. So maybe I’d send out that. Made out of hair so maybe like a Rapunzel staircase.
Is there a place where people can find you like social media or website?
It needs to be updated, but there’s some stuff up there. Social media, I’m not very good at it but I am on Instagram. AnnWoodArtist and also Facebook I think but haven’t updated that in awhile.
