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August 7, 2002
Willow Glen, California Since 1992 |
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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
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Times Two: Artist Anna Ballarian poses next
to a self-portrait that she created in a day.
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Artist pioneers fabric artwork from lint bags
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Amy Jenkins
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When Anna Ballarian moved to Willow Glen in
1957 to accept a teaching position at San
Jose State University, she only
planned to stay for one year. But she has
lived here ever since.
The 92-year-old professor emeritus of art
stayed because she loved teaching art at the
university and preferred the San Jose climate
to that in her home state of New York.
During the past four decades, she taught
courses in watercolor, charcoal, oil
painting, weaving, jewelry making,
leatherwork, ceramics and "lint painting."
Lint painting was inspired by her search for
inexpensive materials to help her students
create art. Ballarian whose father was an
Oriental rug maker in New York, found a local
rug cleaning business that allowed her to buy
bags of lint—cotton fluff from the dryer—by
the pound. After she gathered the lint,
Ballarian glued it together, painted it and
framed it. She has since become known for her
lint paintings and fabric artwork, which
resembles quilting.
"As an artist you're always on the lookout
for materials that can be used for creative
work," says Ballarian, who published a book,
Fabric Collage, in 1976 about the
fabric art form she pioneered.
"I devoted my life to teaching in a different
medium and I'm very versatile," she says.
"I'm imaginative and creative. I get
interested in something, then learn it and
teach it."
Her passion for mentoring others began after
graduating with a master's degree from
Columbia University. The university asked
Ballarian to accept a position as the head of
the school's art department, but she wanted
to teach and so took her first job at a high
school in Sherburn, N.Y.
Since then she has taught throughout the
country and abroad. Her experiences have
ranged from teaching soldiers how to make
leather products during World War II to
building sandcastles in Cannon Beach, Ore.
Throughout her career, Ballarian says, she
worked right alongside her students because
she loved art so much she didn't want to
watch from the sidelines.
Her connection with her students is evident
even in her book, in which Ballarian included
examples of her students' work with her own.
In her living room hangs a large, old
American flag that incorporates many other
fabrics. The artwork says "God Bless
America." After Sept. 11, many people wanted
to purchase it, she says. But Ballarian may
give it to a former student or her niece
because she never married or had any children
of her own.
Ballarian's work—including some of her large
lint wall hangings—are currently on display
at the San Jose Art League until Aug. 29.
Many of her former students honored her by
attending the opening reception on July 27.
"I chose her to be in the show because she
was an excellent teacher, fantastic artist
and hadn't shown her work in years," says San
Jose Art League President Beatrice Garaidh.
"She was the innovator of using different
materials and did lots of textile work. She
is also a very colorful character."
The last time Ballarian showed her work was
seven years ago at Montalvo in Saratoga. That
exhibit only displayed her numerous
sketchbooks from the trips she took around
the world.
While teaching classes abroad, she often took
trips with her students, and her last
sketchbook is a pictorial of her teaching
years in Switzerland during 1996.
Reminiscencing about her years overseas and
the train rides she took in Paris and London,
Ballarian says, "I saw students sleeping on
the train, and I told them, 'You paid a lot
of money for this so open your eyes and see
the world around you.'
The San Jose Art League exhibit of Anna
Ballarian's wall hanging and collage work
runs from July 27 to Aug. 29 at 563 Minor
Ave., San Jose. For more information, call
408.294.4545 or visit the league's website at
www.sjal.org.
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