My name is Annemarie Zwack, and this is where I live.

This is the air I breathe.

This is the water that sustains me.

This is the soil where my food grows. 

This is where all my ancestors are buried. 

I’m mostly water.

This is me with one of my favorite bodies of water.

I am a mother. I am an artist. I tend a garden. I actively participate in my connection to the planet. I teach my son how to grow food. I teach him how to prepare the harvest. I pass on cultural food traditions, and together, we make new ones.

When I was 6, my grandmother let me use the rest of the oil paints left on her pallet, and I painted a horse head on a paper plate. She was very pleased and showed everyone in the family! That’s how I learned I could be an artist.

I pursued art. I studied artists and their work. I took painting and sculpture classes on weekends. I kept a sketch book. I drew from life. Growing up near DC, I’d take the METRO in to the museums and draw from art. I painted sets for high school plays. I was accepted, and got a small scholarship, to the Maryland Institute College of Art, in Baltimore, MD. Though I majored Painting, I also studied Ceramics, Stone Carving, Drawing, Graphic Design, and lots of Art History, and worked at Baltimore Center Stage painting sets. I studied during a summer abroad, in Sorrento, Italy, and the following semester  in Lacoste, France. I earned my BFA in 1996.

In 1997, I moved to Ithaca, NY, because the natural beauty fed my soul, and the culture of a college town promised to feed my mind. I learned to cross country ski, and have been making my home here ever since.

Early on I painted murals for beloved local establishments like Viva Taqueria, and the Cat’s Pajamas. I painted sets for Cornell Theater, the Hangar, and the Kitchen Theater. I taught art classes at the Community School of Music and Arts, and after school at public schools. I also created and showed my own work.

I had a solo exhibits at the Southern Vermont Art Center, The Edward Hopper House, in Nyack, NY, and at Busboys and Poets, in D.C, which was featured in the Washington Post. I had multiple works in a show at the Puffin Room, in SOHO, NYC, in Quilt National, a juried national traveling exhibit, and in a curated fiber arts show in Atlanta, reviewed by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

I worked with play space designer Rusty Keeler on projects nationally and internationally, often adding painted or mosaic elements, and facilitating volunteer engagement. We collaborated with communities creating outdoor learning and play spaces from Muskogee, Oklahoma to Bellingham, Washington, and in China, Scotland, and New Zealand.

In 2015, after seeing a collaborative public art mosaic I worked on in Ithaca, the Mariposa Foundation, Dominican Republic, invited me to lead a collaborative mosaic project at their Center. In 2017, they invited me back to collaborate on an even bigger mural! In 2019, I was invited to Thailand to lead a collaborative mural project!

I started working with Black Girl Alchemy, in 2018, and later with the Community Unity Music Education Program, both of which call Ithaca’s Southside Community Center home. Working with CUMEP led to the honor of being selected as one of 8 local artists for Creatives Rebuild New York’s Artist Employment Program, a 2 year collaboration that, for me, included theatrical set design and children’s book illustration.

In 2022, I was hired, by the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County, NY, to help pilot a 

county-wide public sculpture trail. 

The theme is Food, and Self-Determination is a guiding principle.  With the 1st site, and the 1st artists selected, I am excited to share more details soon!