Ann Rudder steps back and admires the high altar at the Cathedral of St Michael and All Angels. After labouring for weeks on yet another commission, she beholds the beauty her heraldic artistry has brought to a key symbol of worship in the historic Bridgetown church and loudly declares: “Wow! Thank you Jesus.”
She has finally completed painting the many symbols and spiritual forms on the Cathedral’s high altar with assistance from fine artist Martina Pilé Zahles and project mason with Markham Construction Company, Terence Mascoll.
The three toiled for hours to complete a vital section of phase one of the $10 million Cathedral restoration project, adding striking beauty to the church’s Chancel.
When she sat down with Easy last week, the American-born of Barbadian parentage said with a sigh of relief: “I have only been back at apartment level for about a week or so after being at 35 or 40 feet on a scaffold for two weeks.”
Justifiably, she was still on a high.
What some people interpret as eccentricity was coming through as exuberance gushing from a talented and completely engaged artist confident she is on top of her game.
“I had an assigned helper that I chose – Martina Pilé – who assisted me. I also was given a helper by the grace of God through his work and dexterity, being Terrence Mascoll. He offered his help on the day when we were hoisting a huge vacuum cleaner up on the scaffold so that I could get at least 200 years of dust out of the nooks and crannies of the Tree of Life, the Alpha and Omega and all of these others symbols,” Ann said.
The trio worked with dust cloths and nose guards, sneezing all the way, while colourfully reviving the flowers, the vines and every other intricately-detailed design on the stately, imposing edifice that towers over ornate choir stalls and a signature feature of a cathedral – the Bishop’s throne.
She reckons she might be the only female practising the craft in this part of the Caribbean. She certainly is the only one in Barbados.
Ann has designed textile banners, corporate badges, ties, scarves and logos; and restored national insignia commissioned for Government Headquarters, the law courts, the National Library, and the Grantley Adams International Airport.
When she moved to Barbados in 1989, she had already made a name for herself in heraldic circles in the United States, despite not having formal training in the art. But she is a graduate artist who managed to land the kind of jobs that provided opportunities to develop a latent talent she obviously possessed.
Among the 26 cartons of books shipped to Barbados when she was moving here, were 40 books on heraldry, some of the reference material through which she expanded her knowledge. On her own she travelled and familiarised herself with heraldry and met key players in the field.
She is the first to tell you hers has been an exciting life – in the 1960s working in fashion at Bloomingdale’s in New York City by day and as a disc jockey at night. Then she moved to San Francisco, California, launching into a career in the music industry as assistant to the founder of Philmore Records, working with artistes such as Santana, Janis Joplin, Elvin Bishop and the Chambers Brothers. She is credited on Santana’s Abraxas album cover, for her design.
Ann’s heraldic work and achievements cover virtually every space in her apartment. Her horoscopic sign is Gemini. She was born in the Chinese Year of the Horse and pointed out: “there are about 40 horses around this house”.
While being interviewed she was lounging on a sofa with tall, free-standing blue lamps on both sides. “If I point to this lamp and I point to that lamp you will see one is slim and one is thin. I am expressing through my conscious awareness of my sign being a Gemini that I am sitting in a temple.
“With this use of these two columns I have come to realise my own position within myself of being cognitive of signs and symbols.”
It is also another expression of her spirituality, of which the most noticeable symbol is the altar she created at the foot of her bed, with different religious figures and symbols.
“I love symbols. I love the nature of decoding through the symbols of spirits.”
Standing before her altar, Anne pauses to remark: “If you want a pathway to knowing who you are, I would say some of the sacred sciences that are not looked upon so easily in this country, like astronomy, astrology, Chinese astrology, philosophy, symbolical history and such, they are keynotes given to humanity in these discourses and my advocacy is that I think this has been a benefit to my peer group of artists because they are at least keynotes to understanding your own psyche.”