Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
That’s a question that renowned Santa Cruz artist Anne Smith Easley has probably put behind her.
After 35 years making intricate paintings on hollowed-out egg shells of various shapes, colors and sizes, Easley has called it quits to pursue the collage work that her mother, Eloise Pickard Smith, so passionately worked on before she died in 1995.
Ten years after her mother’s death, Easley decided to try collage work using the years of material her mother had built up in a studio at her alma mater, Scripps College in Southern California. Easley did a series of collages, and it turned out to be a special experience for her.
“It was sort of like doing collaborative work with my mother,” she said.
Today, she’s fallen in love with collage — and has begun collecting materials to continue her work.
Her collages are bold, using dark, solid colors and everyday items found in the household. Sometimes, words are incorporated, while other collages are simply designs using swaths of material that balance one another.
The collages are prominently displayed on the walls of the Scotts Valley Branch Library, and a collection of her decorated eggs — from quail eggs to chicken eggs and even an emu egg — are on display in a glass case in the library.
Easley cautions that all of the eggs in her collection are from domesticated sources — mostly from birds her father kept on his property. She said it might be tempting for people to collect wild eggs, but to do so is illegal.
Scotts Valley Branch Library’s Liz Pollock invited Easley to display her work in the library.
Easley’s parents were prominent Santa Cruz figures. Her father, Page Smith, was the founding provost of Cowell College at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her mother was a nationally renowned artist. Today, the Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery at UCSC is one of the prominent art galleries in the county.
Page Smith died peacefully only hours after his wife in 1995.
For information: www.anneeasley.com.
At a glance
• Ann Smith Easley’s artwork — both a collection of painted eggs and about three dozen collages — are on display in the Scotts Valley Library until Feb. 26.
