About the Artist

Website Artistic Statement

My artistic interests have gradually diverged down several different paths. They may not strongly overlap, but they all reflect experiences and inspirations that I have returned to again and again. I began drawing since I could hold a pencil, and have never stopped thereafter, only adding more artistic skills.

Much of my early work consisted of drawings, later examples of which are included on this site. My pastel drawings have often explored the lives of women in moments of intense action or contemplation. These women are sensual beings who reflect my idea of women’s inner lives and status in society.

I’ve always had a strong interest in the interiors of old buildings, most often responding to places that are somewhat run down, though still retaining the elegance of their old-time styles. They include few if any people, thus expressing a certain loneliness. Along these lines, I at one point produced a number of large oil paintings, along with a sequence of pen-and-ink drawings that I am still at work on.

When I began to add computer imaging to my skills, it allowed me to activate longtime interests that had previously found no outlet. For the first time, I acquired ways to present my fossil collection, long accumulated from family land in Iowa, as works of art. I digitally scanned many of the fossils I had found, and later used Photoshop to subtract background details and recombine these fossils into organized groups. Subsequently, “Fossil People” emerged out of this process, as I explored how to turn fossilized creatures into beings with a sort of personhood. I later began to use Photoshop to colorize some of my pen and ink drawings.

As my future art evolves, I expect to continue with all of these avenues of artistic expression.

Website Bio

Ann Hjelle is presently professor of art at Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY, where she teaches digital graphic design and the history of graphic design. She has won five BMCC Faculty Development grants and four PSC-CUNY research grants for the development of her own art projects, and participated in the development of art department curriculum and BMCC’s multimedia program.

She has previously been an artist in residence, slide lecturer, conference speaker, art exhibition judge and touring artist in several programs, including the New York Foundations for the Arts. She has also created fashion and magazine illustrations for newspapers and other publications.

In 2011 Hjelle developed and installed an exhibition titled “The Hjelles of Siewers Springs” at the Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa. Sponsored by the Winneshiek County Historical Society and supported by grants from PSC-CUNY, Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa, and Humanities Iowa grants, the show featured images from the Hjelle family’s extensive historical archive that Hjelle had scanned and put together.

She has exhibited in many solo and group art exhibitions and won a number of prizes, including the Manisphere International art exhibition, Winnipeg, Canada, and first prize, drawing division, Minnesota State Fair. She won two Ford Foundation fellowships while attending the University of Washington, and is included in Who’s Who of American Women and Who’s Who of American Teachers.