A native of Abrams Village, Island artist Ann Gallant has embarked upon an artistic journey back in time to connect with her cave-dwelling forbearers. Back to the paleolithic societies where it is now becoming evident that women occupied a place of power and respect.
Ms. Gallant has created a series of images (see right) based on rock painting and pottery designs cited in The Language of the Goddesses, a very influential book about matriarchal societies by Czech archaeologist Marija Gimbutas.
These rock paintings emphasize female-centred expressions of regeneration using symbols such as stars, lunar cycles, birds, seeds, water, the shedding skin of the snake-often presented as simple graphic designs such as "V"s, chevrons or wavy lines.
These images are produced by applying a watercolour wash to the paper, making the design with an opaque gouache, finally adding a third layer of mixed, coloured ink. When the work is dry Ann places it in a bathtub and the water soluble gouache comes off, rendering the desired result. The colours are very "earthy" browns, greens, slate- grays and various blends.
Ann researched this technique during her time at the Buckhorn School of Fine Arts in Peterborough, Ontario where she was taking a course in watercolour and oil painting from Gary Chapman.
While she has been doing artwork for a long time-"I've drawn all my life"-Ann has also been very active in the Latin American Mission Program (LAMP). Her work in this field has taken her to the Dominican Republic and Haiti She first went to Haiti in 1988 spending two and a half years teaching nutrition to children and women's groups. In 1995 she returned to Haiti for a couple of months. Even in this work she did not abandon her art, rather she used it as an important teaching aid in many subjects.
Ann's formal art training includes studies at Mount Allison University in art history and George Brown College of Art and Technology in Toronto (honours degree in Graphic Design).
She worked for a year in Toronto doing architectural illustrations and back on PEI worked for a spell in the graphic department of the Journal Pioneer in Summerside. Upon her last return from Haiti, Ann started getting seriously into her artwork again, opening a studio in Abrams Village and taking on commissions for signs, murals and paintings. She is currently continuing to develop her rock-painting series and will be one of the women (with twenty-two other Island women artists) featured in the Signs of the Times womens art project currently in development.