Annette Fortt
artist
dc
Having had a dual career as a practicing artist and an Art educator has had its advantages. My work is my expanded vision the world I inhabit and teaching has immersed me into that world and provided me many opportunities to observe, reflect and record. I was an art Education major at Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) graduating with the BS in 1966. Soon after graduation I moved to New York, which was, for me, an expanded classroom. I took advantage of the museums, especially MOMA where I was schooled in Abstract Expressionism, and Art Student League where I studied painting. I took Art History classes at Hunter College and New York University then traveled to Europe to experience the art first hand.
When I finally decided to pursue a graduate program I was admitted to Pratt Institute and received the MFA degree in 1983. My studies at Pratt heightened my interest in printmaking and after graduation I spent two years printing at Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop. Initially I volunteered in the collection room in exchange for studio time and was subsequently selected to receive the Jerome Fellowship, which allowed me free studio time. At this time, having married and started a family, I took leave from teaching and I was able to spend several years solely as a practicing artist, exhibiting my work in and around the New York City area and beyond.
Moving to Washington DC in 1985 I joined a group of printmakers at the Graphic Workshop. A project among the artist for an open house heightened my awareness of the need for ethnic greeting cards in the African American community and I launched a line of greeting cards from block prints. Just Art Inc. was a successful line of greeting cards for several years until the business expanded and I had to decide whether I would be a businesswoman or an artist. The art won out. I returned to my dual career, practicing art and teaching Art, first teaching part time, then, full time until retiring from Montgomery Public Schools in 2006. Retirement was a time to exhale and enjoy the freedom of time to create but I have not ceased to immerse myself in life to be inspired by it.
My body of work deals with a variety of subjects but my vision is broad enough to include things observed, things felt and things believed. I do not see the zones between social realities, spiritual truths and surrounding beauty as opposing forces but all coming together to express my point of view.
