Moments In Time

Moments in Time utilizes the type of spontaneous images made possible by the ubiquity of smartphones. In Abbass’s daily life, she is often on foot and takes the opportunity to notice the day-to-day changes the seasons bring in the lawns and gardens of her neighbourhood.  When she sees a flower in bloom, or brightly coloured fall leaves, things that appear so temporarily, she captures these images in their prime, and crops and edits them to highlight their unique beauty. Now a permanent record of the temporary beauty exists; close up, cropped and singled out. Translating the images from a photograph to a print by using the photocopy transfer process gives the images a softer and more delicate quality. Layering and collaging these with linocut images of other foliage, pieces of older prints, and passages of text and maps suggests memories, keepsakes, or pages from a journal.  Hand sewing the collages together physically joins the paper while the stitches add colour and texture.

Anne Abbass is a Toronto-based artist and printmaker. She holds a BFA from Queens University 1993. Anne has been a member of Open Studio since 1994. She has worked as a user experience consultant for websites, and now spends her time at home with her 3 young kids. Her prints are created through the process of combining images, hand written script and colour. The images, text and drawings are taken from observations in daily life. Many of the central images are taken from nature, using photography and drawing. The text is not meant to be legible, but to suggest bits of past memories and thoughts, as in a journal or diary. She uses several printmaking processes in each print and collages smaller images and pieces of prints together, often by hand sewing.