Ann Metlay has spent most of her life writing and teaching writing, so when she retired to the Verde Valley in 2010, she decided she wanted to pursue something different. An active student and teacher at the local chapters of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes, Ann took a class in papier-mâché. She discovered she could join her creations with pieces of desert wood, which eventually led her to start Adrift Assemblages. Today, instead of combining papier-mâché and wood, Ann creates ceramics at Reitz Ranch in Clarkdale. She marries her abstract ceramic creations with wood in her Cottonwood studio, which is open to the public Monday through Friday from 3 to 5 p.m. or by appointment. Ann sells her art at her studio.
Ann has only been making her chess sets, masks, vessels and sculptures for about one year, but she has already amassed quite a portfolio. “It’s turned into a second career,” she says. “I work 50 or 60 hours a week on my art, not because I have to but because I enjoy doing it.”
Born and raised in Berkeley, California, Ann joined the Peace Corps in the late ’60s and spent two years in Nigeria. She thinks the primitive nature of her mixed-media art is a reflection of what she learned while she was living in Africa. When Ann returned to the U.S., she settled in Washington, D.C., before moving “as far west as I could afford” nine years ago. Much of the wood found in her artwork was collected by Ann during her regular outings around the Verde River. She also has connections in the Verde Valley who bring her wood for her art. She primarily works with palo verde, mesquite, juniper and cottonwood. Ann sees her artwork as an extension of her creative writing and poetry.
“When I’m writing, it brings me to a place that I can’t get to otherwise,” she says. “It’s my creative outlet. I feel the same about my art. And I didn’t start doing it until after I turned 70. So there is life after 70, and I’m enjoying every minute of it.”
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