Ann Swan
March 15, 1922 – February 18, 2014
“Doing art in any form stirs up creative energy, putting us in touch with our deepest selves. The creative process is a journey into unknown territory. There is always a sense of mystery because we don’t know what we will be bringing out. The more we become involved in creativity, the deeper we go. Then we begin to develop a trust in ourselves.” — Anne Swan
Anne Swan was so much a part of Patagonia that it is easy to forget she had a life before coming here.
That life began in Minneapolis, where she grew up and attended the University of Minnesota, earning a degree in architecture. It was there that she met another architecture major, George Swan. They married in 1945.
In the postwar years that followed, they raised a family. While George was pursuing his career, Anne remained at home with their three children. It was, after all, the 50s. But Anne’s son, George, recalls that he always felt that his mother was not like the other kids’ mothers. “I used to look forward to coming home after school,” he says, “to see what colors she had been experimenting with. Half the living room would be taken up with her hand-dyed fabric, drying on clothesline stretched across the room.”
Anne and George moved to North Dakota in 1961, and then to Wisconsin, about four years later. Anne was experimenting with fiber art, then in its infancy as an art form. She created wall hangings, soft sculpture, and fiber paintings, which were exhibited in galleries and museums. Her award-winning work began to earn a reputation, and Anne was asked to lead seminars and workshops in this new media.
In the early 1980s, after hearing from Anne’s sister Charlotte (“Cici”) about the small town in Arizona where she lived, Anne and George visited Patagonia. They loved it and came to live here in 1984. George, by then a distinguished architect, designed a home for them on a hill just outside of town. Anne did some of her most productive work as an artist in the years that followed, exhibiting and selling at galleries in Tucson and back in Chicago.
Anne Swan was known and loved by many in this community. She encouraged its aspiring artists. She enjoyed a good argument. In recent years she could often be seen conversing with someone in the town’s shops or on the sidewalk. Her lively mind never ceased to enjoy a dialogue with the world around her.
She often stated her belief that art’s purpose was to communicate, to share. She wanted people who viewed her work to gain from it an emotion, an enthusiasm “that made them want to dance.”
Anne also often said she felt blessed to be a part of this community. She wrote a final message to any one she hadn’t “had a chance to say goodby to” that read: “To all of those who love me and care for me, who have made my life so rich and happy: I wish you all a bundle of love and happiness. I love you. Anne”
George, her husband of 64 years, passed away in 2009. Anne is survived by her sister, Cici Finley; her children George, Cynthia, and Nora; three grandchildren; and one great-grandson. A memorial service for the community is being tentatively planned for March.