Ann Meade

Ann Meade (b. 1962) is a multidisciplinary artist who joined NIAD Art Center in 2000. Her practice spans ceramics, painting, drawing, printmaking, and fiber arts. For many of these works, the abundance of the California landscape serves as a major inspiration: poppies and tulips blooming, big skies striped with rainbows, and patchwork patterned fields. Meade’s luminous painted, glazed, and stitched environments are dotted with groups of smiling cats, and baseball players from the (formerly) Oakland A’s. In addition to works-on-paper and wall-hanging tapestries, Meade has also crafted many functional items, including clay bowls, teapots, hand-embroidered kaftans, and quilts. In each medium, she works mindfully and methodically, remarking that “making art keeps my life centered and calm.” 

Beyond her decades-long dedication to her own studio practice, Meade has been a steadfast advocate for her peers. She is among the founding members of the Artist Advisory Committee, a group of NIAD artists in leadership positions who meet weekly to bring attention to the needs of the community, identify necessary change, and shape NIAD’s future. During these meetings, Meade conceived of the Artist of the Month program, an initiative which converts a portion of the communal studio into an installation space that allows individuals or small teams of artists to delve deeper into the curatorial side of their practices. She explains: “Lots of workshops and places have ‘employee of the month,’ and so I thought it'd be great if NIAD had 'Artist of the Month.' That's how I came up with the idea for this tradition.”

As the first in the series, Meade staged a solo exhibition entitled, Cat Waterfall, which celebrated an outpouring of love to and from cats. Among the featured works were a hand-stitched quilt, ink drawings, and glazed ceramic vessels, all boasting colorful feline motifs as symbols of companionship, acceptance, and joy. 

Ann Meade has participated in group exhibitions at the Oakland Museum of California, Et al. Gallery, Chico Art Center, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Wellness Center, and Kala Art Institute, among others. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Regional Center for the East Bay in San Leandro, and Stanford Health Care in Palo Alto, CA.

Ann Meade comes from a long family line of artists, including her great grandmother, grandmother, cousin and aunt. Ann is proud to have a family history of creators and feels that her family’s legacy informs her work and her drive to create. Cats are another cornerstone for Ann’s practice; she had a cat as a child and they have always been an important part of her life.

Making art keeps her life centered and calm, according to Ann. Art is about having fun to Ann and ‘seeing where it goes.’ Ann has been practicing her work since her high school days, where she took advanced art classes and exhibited work in her district’s high school art show in her senior year.

Ann’s favorite materials to work with are oil pastels and watercolors. She likes to work with watercolors because they’re simple and direct for her. She also enjoys experimenting with ink, often drawing people pulled from books and magazines. Ann likes to make work both from her imagination as well as by direct observation from photos and real life. Clay is another medium Ann has excelled at; she shares that ‘clay feels good to touch, it’s good to put it together.’

A lifelong California based artist, Ann cites the state as a main inspiration for her. She likes the art, baseball and diverse landscapes of California, especially the Oakland A’s baseball team. NIAD Art Center feels like a second home to Ann. She shares, ‘I like coming to NIAD because I enjoy making art.’