Missouri’s Hannibal. When you visit Alliance Art Gallery in August, you will see the works of two artists who are full of lines, patterns, and textures: gallery artist Ann Miller Titus and guest artist Elizabeth Swick.
Born and raised in Quincy, Elizabeth Swick’s artistic education has brought her from Quincy High School to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, where she earned a degree in film. After that, Swick went to California to work on backdrops and props for the student films at the American Film Institute. She returned to Carbondale to complete her master’s degree after deciding to further her studies.
She decided to major in glass with a focus on lost wax casting after working with a range of art mediums, including glass, ceramics, jewelry-making, blacksmithing, and other three-dimensional media. Since setting up a pottery studio at home was simpler, she returned to Quincy and ceramics after graduating.
Swick draws inspiration from both the instantaneous and time-created patterns found in nature. Currently, she uses topographical patterns in many of her hand-built clay pieces to create imaginary worlds.
Swick is currently the director of shows at the Quincy Art Center, where he has spent ten years in a variety of positions.
The first words of Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower sprang out the page when Ann Miller Titus started reading it last year: Everything you touch changes you. Everything you alter transforms you. This was exactly what Miller Titus needed to expand her current fiber art work on the theme of connection.
The most recent pieces by Miller Titus try to illustrate how humans relate to one another and the changes that occur as a result. She starts by painting abstract, organic designs with water-soluble inks on cotton. She then uses hand stitching to further clarify the shapes and to create areas where the pieces interact and intersect. The completed ink and embroidered works frequently double as sketches for bigger art quilts, which use intricate machine quilting and hand appliqu techniques to create worlds that are interconnected, interdependent, and ever-changing.
Miller Titus is the manager of Alliance Gallery, which is owned by twenty local artists. She was born and reared in Hamilton, Illinois, and earned a master’s degree in audiology from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.
She used the sewing skills she had learnt at her grandmother’s knees to make baby quilts when her friends began having kids in the 1980s. Her quilts now are produced in precisely the same way, even though they don’t look much like what we often think of when we think of quilts. This relationship with women and their quilts from earlier generations is something that Miller Titus cherishes and honors.
Miller Titus displays her artwork locally and has won multiple accolades, such as:
- 2012 City of Quincy Arts Award
- 2022 City of Quincy Purchase Award at QFest
- First Place in the 2022 at the Mary S. Oakley and Lee Lindsay Area Artists Showcase at the Quincy Art Center
- Best of Show in the 2024 Historic Shaw Art Fair in St. Louis.
On Saturday, August 9, from 4 to 8 p.m., there will be an opening event for these artists, which will feature a talk by the artists at 6 p.m. At 6:30 p.m., there will be a free drawing to win a piece of Ann’s artwork. To enter, simply stop by the gallery at any time that day and fill out a drawing ticket; the winner need not be present to win.
This reception takes place in conjunction with the downtown Hannibal Art Walk, which offers 11 locations for local artists to showcase their exquisite artwork and handicrafts.
