Using an intricate random weave process, Raleigh’s Anne Storie Willson works with reed and other natural materials to create sculptural weavings of dresses, nests and pods.
Artist: Born on a coastal sound near Wilmington, NC, Willson grew up and lived in Greensboro for many years.
She earned three BA’s: communications, museum studies and art history from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she also received an MA in liberal studies. Willson also earned a certificate in non-profit management from Duke University.
Willson began making pottery in 1986, and shifted into arts administration in 1989 while still making art on the side.
Over the years, Willson worked as executive director of several arts organizations and entities. She also served as a nonprofit consultant, art museum administrator, art writer and taught in Duke’s Nonprofit Management Program.
In 2016, she ended her work in nonprofits in Chattanooga, TN, and returned to North Carolina to focus on her art.
Studio: Anne Storie Willson has been a studio artist at Anchorlight in Raleigh since February 2022. Prior to this, her studio was located in Litmus Gallery and Studios (now closed).
In the beginning: In the summer of 2009, Willson was running an art-based reuse nonprofit in Greensboro. The widow of John Skau, a friend and fiber/sculptural weaving artist, donated a voluminous amount of his reed and wood strips to the nonprofit after he died.
Also that summer, Mass Arts/Art New England offered a sculptural weaving workshop with Boston artist Nathalie Miebach. Willson went to the workshop, taking some of Skau’s materials with her.
Miebach taught a range of weaving methods and presented slides of artists working in the medium. In one of the presentations, she showed Skau’s works as an example of a particular method — the very artist whose materials she carried with her.
“I took that as a sign and decided to pursue sculptural weaving, using the random weave method, the method that was the most challenging and most intriguing to me,” said Willson.
Willson still has some of Skau’s materials and uses them sparingly.
Art & materials: Sculpture, using a random weave method. Primary materials are reed and wood, with occasional waxed linen, paper or fabric.
What’s popular: Wall works ($350 to $2,200) in which the reed is formed around and in response to a piece of wood.
Other favorites: The dresses ($1,050 to $7,000), which are about embodying a personality into a dress form. In some ways, the dress becomes the skin.
“For each, the emerging personality guides me in the development of the work,” said Willson. “It’s my job to see who she is and how she wants to come into form.”
Favorite tools: Water, cutting shears, zip ties and clothes pins.
Inspirations: Artists, including:
- Magdalena Abakanowicz
- Patrick Dougherty
- Andy Goldsworthy
- Anne Truitt
Interesting commission: For an architect friend and his wife who live in a contemporary, four-story townhome in Chattanooga. The stairwell is glass and cement, and runs through the middle of their home.
They commissioned a piece to hang on a landing that would help absorb some of the echoes within the stairwell.
Willson created a fairly dense work to capture sound, 4.5 feet wide by 2.5 feet tall. The work included three parallel pieces of wood spaced in the width of the stair railings.
The piece was hung as intended, but later it was moved to the dining room so that the work, and its shadows, would be more visible.
Recent project: Birdwoman. The sculpture took about 1.5 years to come into form.
“I knew the title and who she would be, but she was slow to show herself and would only reveal one aspect at a time,” said Willson. “In addition, she was started three times. The first two were completely ripped out to start anew.”
Birdwoman lives in Willson’s studio.
What’s new:
- Exploring how to meld the hard edges of a square with random weave.
- Had a work recently included in DownEast National Sculpture Exhibition in Greenville, NC.
Where to buy: annewillsonart.com. Also at her studio at Anchorlight
Get social: Instagram: @annewillsonart
