Instructor Bio / Anne-Davnes Elser / 2023

Intuitive empath, artist, and instructor, Anne believes making art and nurturing that process for others creates a channel for truth and is a soulful reflection of the connections shared by all. Blending both logical and philosophical approaches to design, layout, technique, and purpose to calligraphy, painting, bookbinding, and drawing, Anne’s unique teaching approach paves the way for the surprising ease of creative growth in an environment of wonder and pleasure. 

Anne teaches from a table that is circular. The student body and herself all sit around that circle, focusing on the content, which is in the center of that table. Our feast is the discussion of the content and how it relates to our unique dynamic. Her courses are a sacred co-creation of new awareness between the content, the students, herself, and an unseen team of benevolent forces to ease the way.

Earning a BFA in 1991 in painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art and graduate studies in Graphic Design at The Portfolio Center, Anne Elser began her artistic career in 1997 as a painter, bookbinder, designer, calligrapher, and instructor in these fields. 

She currently teaches private calligraphy and bookbinding lessons from her home studio in Decatur, Georgia, and online. Anne also travels worldwide, conducting workshops and lectures, and is an IAMPETH instructor. She also offers in-person classes at Phoenix & Dragon Bookstore in Sandy Springs, GA.

Her calligraphic work has been featured in books and magazines across the country, and for both private and corporate clients such as Tiffany&Co, MontBlanc, Louis Vuitton, Paces Papers, Landor, Martha Stewart Weddings, Belk, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, Clicquot Veauvé, World50, Ogilvy, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Speedball.

Anne’s creation of the calligraphic hand, Open-Shaded Script was published in the Speedball Textbook’s 25th Edition - a Comprehensive Guide to Pen and Brush Lettering. 

Fine Art Exhibitions: 

GRACE, 2010, Kai Lin Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA

FLORA, 2011, Kai Lin Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA

SECOND BIRTH, Spring 2023, Meredith Ward Fine Art Gallery, NYC, NY

FLORA: Femininity and the Healing Powers of Nature, Summer 2023, Phoenix & Dragon Bookstore, Atlanta, GA

She can be contacted at PenKitten@AnneElser.com, and found online at annedavnes.com, on Facebook, and Instagram. 

To register for classes go to AnneElserClasses.Eventbrite.com and LearnCalligraphy.com.

Class exemplars and other materials are at AnneElserShop.BigCartel.com. 

Artist Statement / Anne-Davnes Elser / 2023

The privilege of self-awareness is expressed in my paintings.

Comparing the mediums in which I work, painting has been the one constant, the medium to which I turn to express the visual language of metaphor, the delicious narrative of color relationships, and the power and beauty of femininity, balanced by both feminine and masculine energies.

This balance has been my life’s work, and sharing the story is the table of community, in the classroom, on the stage, the bar, kitchen table, and within the nooks of our mind’s inner vision.

Beauty is often portrayed as an expression of the cliche. This was the case during the time of my formal undergraduate education as a painter at The Cleveland Institute of Art from 1986-1991. As a young art student, my desire to express feminine beauty and the search for self from the female lens, was an unpopular topic.

“Cliche” and “typically feminine” were my labels. I persisted and continue to this day to explore the themes that magnetized me to the canvas and kept a brush in my hands.

Our world wasn’t always patriarchal and though we are currently at the beginning of the end of our love affair with the power of toxic masculinity and the imbalance that produces, I suggest life on our planet might be improved greatly were we all in tune and in balance with both the feminine and masculine energies available to us, no matter where on the gender spectrum we may find ourselves.

Balance, balance, balance.

The abstract forms found in my work all start from the exploration of the feminine body, from a feminine perspective. The torso, the navel, folds of flesh, hormonal fluctuations from birth to death, the miracle of fertilization, the adornment of the body, swimming through the liquid bath of one’s emotions - the stories told in the work all begin with an honest unabashedly naked look at oneself and the natural environment. The bodies in my pieces search for balance on the surface. Sometimes elements appear in a work, and then are sacrificed by becoming the foundation for a different element, thereby living on as an underlayer of awareness that gives the painting a history, literally and metaphorically.

The life of a piece from start to finish is a journey of inspiration, regret, loss, fascination, and joy. The beginning and the ending of a work is always the most painful. I begin with what I think I need to say, and the painting tells me in its intuitive language through the visceral nature of slippery oils on a stable substrate what it wants and needs. This narrative between the content, tools, mediums, myself and the etherial continues until the intuitively channeled message is completed and stabilized and all feminine and masculine energies are in balance. 

CV

Anne-Davnes Dusenberry Elser

Atlanta, GA 2023

PenKitten@AnneElser.com • AnneDavnes.com

Summary

• Professional art instructor since 1996

• Award-winning portfolio and published work

• Lifelong passion for teaching

• IAMPETH calligraphy instructor

• Lifelong professional painter

Education

The Portfolio Center (Miami Ad School), Atlanta, GA

Certificate of Graduate Studies, Graphic Design

1994 - 1996

The Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH

BFA, Painting

1986 - 1991

Employment History

The Partnership, Atlanta, GA

Graphic Designer

1996 - 2005 

Designed award-winning brochures, posters, environmental design, logos, branding, identity, calligraphy, packaging, annual reports, web design, direct mail, book design, etc.

The Portfolio Center, Atlanta, GA

Professor of Graphic Design

1996 - 2020

Responsible for the creation, development and instruction of the following graduate Graphic Design classes: (For further explanation, please see attached syllabi.)

• Creative Muscle (Concept driven color theory.)

• Creative Strokes (Concept driven classic and contemporary calligraphy.)

• Emotive Type/Type 1 (Emphasis on type as image via typographic expression.)

• Dry Toast, Truth and Beauty /Type 4 (Emphasis on close examination of classic typefaces.)

• Publication & Editorial Design (Emphasis on the grid and its implementation.) 

• Logos, Symbols and Metaphors (Exploration of intuitive textures and mark-making in conjunction with meaningful metaphors.) 

• Type Is Mass /Type 2 (Emphasis on type design of body copy as sculptural page elements and the implementation of an organic/intuitive grid.)

• Graduate Class (Supervision of final design and completion of graduate portfolios.)

• Promotion Design (Exploration of the limitless possibilities for promotion of an idea or product.)

• Smart Glue (Upper-quarter class with an emphasis on the students’ ability to create their own 

assignments based upon their own strengths and weaknesses.) 

• Bookmaking (Hands-on crafting of several basic book and box forms.) 

• The Holy Hand (Highly conceptual class focusing on low-tech execution of concepts 

without the aid of the computer.)

Anne Davnes, Inc, Atlanta, GA

Freelance Design, Calligraphy, Bookbinding and instruction in these fields.

2005 - present

Freelance design, illustration, calligraphy, bookbinding, and instruction in these fields.

Fine Art Exhibitions 

• GRACE,  2010, Kai Lin Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA

• FLORA, 2011, Kai Lin Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA

• SECOND BIRTH, Spring 2023, Meredith Ward Fine Art Gallery, NYC, NY

• FLORA: Femininity and the Healing Powers of Nature, Summer 2023, Phoenix & Dragon Bookstore, Atlanta, GA

Visiting Workshops and Lectures 

• Hong Kong, Summer 2017

• Manila, Summer 2018

• Jakarta, Summer 2018

• IAMPETH, Milwaukee, Summer 2018

• Lettering Arts Guild, Des Moines, Fall 2019

• Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking Lecture, Winter 2021

• SanDiego Society for Calligraphy, Winter 2021

• Michigan Association of Calligraphy, Spring 2021

• IAMPETH, Atlanta, Summer 2022

• Atlanta Friends of the Alphabet Calligraphy Guild, Spring 2023

• Learn Calligraphy.com, 2023

Publications/Books 

• Speedball Textbook, 25th Edition (Open-Shaded Script) (2022)

• Lillian Smith’s Memory of a Large Christmas by Lillian Smith (1996) Jacket Design & Illustration 

• Graphis Student Design (1997) Teacup Portrait 

• Storyville, USA by Dale Peterson (1999) Jacket Design & Illustration 

• Pantone Guide to Communicating with Color by Leatrice Eiseman (2000) Juvenile Diabetes Foundation poster 

• Let Them Eat Data: How Computers Affect Education, Cultural Diversity, and the Prospects of Ecological Sustainability by Chet A. Bowers (2000) Jacket Design & Illustration 

• Then is Now: Sampling from the Past for Today’s Graphics by Cheryl Dangel Cullen (2001) Posters: Evocative and Maker Becomes Nature 

• Trickster Lives: Culture and Myth in American Fiction by J C Reesman (Paperback - 2001) Jacket Design & Illustration 

• Minimal Graphics: The Powerful New Look of Graphic Design by Catharine Fishel (2002) Posters: Brian Jones, Personification, High Tea and JDF 

Brochure: Juvenile Diabetes Foundation 

• Numerous pieces in the following Design Annual Publications: Graphis, How, Communication Arts, Print

Professional Affiliations 

Friends of the Alphabet (Atlanta Calligraphy Guild)

IAMPETH (Internations Association of Master Penmen and Teachers of Handwriting)

Computer/Software Knowledge 

Adobe Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator

Portfolio Center Awards 

Spring 95: 

Gold - Menu Design

Gold - Wienola

Best of Show/Design - How to Cook an Ex-Boyfriend 

Gold - Fish Study 

Gold - Map of California

Silver - Self-portrait 

Best of Show/Illustration - Mind, Body, Spirit Series 

Fall 95: Gold - Gift for a Designer/Ann Field-a Portrait

Silver - Recipe Book/Creation-a Recipe 

Winter 96: Distinctive Merit - Poster/You Are the Mirror

Gold - Packaging/Gazoyks Packaging 

Fall 95: Silver - Surrealism Razor/This is Not A Razor, 

Gold - Logo/Dream Maker Futons, 

Silver - Bodoni/Bodoni 

Summer 96: Silver - Being Digital

Links 

AnneDavnes.com