Artist Statement and Biography photos
by Michelle Smith-Lewis

M. Anne Sweet is a poet and artist who has read and exhibited throughout the Pacific Northwest. She has performed individually, as well as with The Seattle Five Plus One, Project Z, and The Daughters of Dementia.

Sweet studied art and art history at the University of New Mexico. As a visual artist, she works primarily in mixed media, digital art, and photography. She has over 45 years of experience in the field of graphic design.

Beginning 1978, she worked for the Washington Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association as art director, website designer, editor, and retiring as general manager in 2022. In 2022 she was recognized with one of the Washington Thoroughbred industry’s highest awards, the S. J. Agnew Special Achievement Award for her lifetime of service to the industry. She currently serves as President of the Washington Thoroughbred Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports the Thoroughbred industry through a variety of scholarships and grants.

Art credits include:

• 2022, 2nd Place and Honorable Mention, Gordy & Connie Jarnig Award for Digital Art, Equine Art 2022, Emerald Downs, Auburn, WA
• 2022, Breathe, cover art, “Mason-Dixon: The Cost of Cotton,” and poem, “Descendant”
• 2021, Open Theme / All Media Juried Show, Las Laguna Art Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
• 2021, Art and Artists in the Time of Corona, a panel discussion presented by Collective Visions Gallery, Bremerton, WA, with panelists Michael Laughlin, M. Anne Sweet, and Fred Nicholson, moderated by Alan Newberg
• 2020, Cover photo, Holy Magic, by Priscilla Long, MoonPath Press
• 2020, Touching Moments: Art from the Heart, A/NT Gallery, Seattle, WA
• 2019, 2018, Arts Gala on Poverty Bay, Des Moines, WA
• 2019, Please Touch: Animate Your Senses!, A/NT Gallery, Seattle, WA
• 2018, 2017, 2015, 2014, 2012, 2011, Annual Juried Art Show Arts of the Terrace, Mountlake Terrace, WA
• 2018, 2012, Artist Trust Benefit Juried Art Auction , Seattle, WA
• 2017, 2016, 2015, The CVG Juried Art Show, Bremerton, WA
• 2017, Mount Baker Neighborhood Center of the Arts Juried Shows, Seattle, WA
• 2017, 2015, City of SeaTac (WA) Juried Photo Exhibit
• 2016, Peninsula Art League Open Juried Art Show, Gig Harbor, WA
• 2013, Twelve photos, Raven Chronicles, Vol. 18, No. 1-2: Why We Do What We Do
• 2012, Eight photos from South Park Bridge Series, Raven Chronicles, Vol. 17, No. 1-2: A Sense of Place
• 2012, Nude Nite Juried Art Show, Tampa, FL
• 2010, Featured artist, City Hall, Normandy Park, WA
• 2010, 1st Place, “Bridge Americana,” Normandy Park (WA) Art Festival, Photography, Professional Level
• 2009, commissioned to photograph an original Roy Lichtenstein (Gallant Scene II, 1957, oil on canvas) for a monograph/treatise published in conjunction with an anthrological exhibition of Lictenstein’s work that took place in Milan, Italy (January-May 2010) and Cologne, Germany (July-October 2010)
• 2008, Morrie & Joan Alhadeff Purchase Award, “Zequus Triptych,” Equine Art 2008, Emerald Downs, Auburn, WA
• 2003, Juror’s Award solo exhibit, Arts Commission Gallery, City Hall, Federal Way, WA
• 2003, Juror’s Award, “Menstrata,” Arts Alive, Federal Way, WA
• 2003, Purchase Award, “Laundry in Light and Dark,” City of SeaTac (WA) Juried Photo Exhibit

Poetry and writing credits include:

• Second book-length collection of poems, including original drawings, is forthcoming
• Breathe, July 2022 (cover art, “Mason-Dixon: The Cost of Cotton,” and poem, “Descendant”)
• Lady Liberty: A Graphic Poem (amazon.com, 2011)
• South Park Bridge: A Graphic Poem (amazon.com, 2011)
• Model Examines: A Graphic Poem (amazon.com, 2011)
• Invited writer (commission), “Pocosin,” Signs of Life, Facèré, 2011
• Book-length poetry collection, Nailed to the Sky (2003, gazoobitales.com)
• The Seattle Five Plus One: Poetry (1995, Pig Iron Press)
• The Hidden Power of Dreams (2009), by Denise Linn (originally published as Pocketful of Dreams, 1993)
• Winner of the Bart Baxter Poetry in Performance Competition presented by the Washington Poets Association, 2003
• “Marlin Fishing,” performed in Miracle Theatre Group’s production, Conquista and Rebellion, El Centro Milagro’s Main Stage, Portland, OR, and published in the accompanying anthology, 2003
• Two poems selected as Poems of Special Merit for publication in The Comstock Review, 2002
• “Overture and Fugue,” performed by The People’s Theatre
• Poems have appeared in Crab Creek Review, The Raven Chronicles, Pontoon, Main Street Rag Poetry Journal, PoetsWest Literary Journal, The Charlotte Poetry Review, Equine Image, as well as online at Switched-on Gutenberg, Pif Magazine, The Horsethief’s Journal, and The Green Tricycle

In addition, she collaborated on a variety of projects with artist and musician, the late Chuck Smart, including working with area percussionists, musicians and dancers on interdisciplinary collaborations, known as Project Z, which combined poetry with dance and a variety of percussion, flutes, shakers, hand-clapping and other world music instruments.

Sweet is a founding board member of Musical Experiences, a group dedicated to bringing an understanding of classical music to a broad audience. Since 2000, she has been co-chairman of the Equine Art Show in Auburn, Washington; and in 2017, she was appointed to the Des Moines (WA) Arts Commission. For several years she organized a popular south Puget Sound reading series called Passion for Poetry. She is a past member of the board of the Washington Poets Association. For eighteen years, from the late 1970s to mid-90s, Sweet owned horses and competed in three-day eventing and dressage.

Sweet maintains a working studio (Studio SixEight) at Equinox Studio, located in the Georgetown area of Seattle at 6555 5th Avenue South, #310. She is available for performances and exhibits throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Read an interview with Sweet at Seattle Wrote.

Contact her for information about archival fine art printing and giclées at Studio SixEight.

Visit her shop at Etsy

Member Seattle Made