Eye-catching art of former Disney ‘imagineer’ to be featured at Community Center of LCF’s spring ceramics sale
To artist Ann Malmlund, creative expression is second nature.
The Tujunga resident’s ability to bring inert objects to life through a little bit of handiwork is a skill she’s carefully developed over decades, first as a child with an avid interest in painting, drawing and sculpture, then as a Disney “imagineer” who built and staged figures for theme park attractions all over the world and, most recently, as a ceramic artist.
“You try different things as you try different tools,” she said in a recent interview. “There’s just a need to make things.”
In 2009, a newly retired Malmlund remembered a newspaper article she’d clipped years earlier about the ceramics program at the Community Center of La Cañada Flintridge and signed up for her first class.
Her skill with hand tools and understanding of composition served her well in the ceramics studio, where she quickly excelled and began creating complex and intricate ceramic sculptures.
On May 12 and 13, Malmlund’s ceramic work and paintings will be on display at the Community Center’s annual spring ceramics sale, where she will be the featured artist.
Miriam Balcazar, head of the center’s ceramics department, said Malmlund never runs out of ideas for new pieces. Recently, she added, the artist has been exploring in her work a fascination with the shapes and compositions of bones.
“She comes to the studio with images she wants to work on and starts carving away,” Balcazar said. “She always keeps going. She’s always pushing forward.”
Malmlund made dioramas as a child and used her father’s wood-carving tools to create small objects. She later graduated from CSU Northridge, which then offered a furniture-making and sculpting program, and graduated from Stanford in 1975 with a master’s degree in painting.
She was working for the campus’ Leland Stanford Jr. Museum when she landed an interview with Disney. Hiring managers were searching for a wood carver who could design and build pieces for the parks’ rides, and Malmlund got the job.
For the next 25 years, she traveled the globe as a prop builder and later a production designer. At 60, she retired and sought her next artistic pursuit. Today, she attends Thursday morning classes every week, where she lets the malleability of the clay guide her ever-changing vision.
“I make a big lumpy something and then I start carving away — it’s the wood-worker in me,” Malmlund said. “As I carve away, the form comes to me. (And) it’s never the thing I thought it would be in the beginning.”
Balcazar said while the spring ceramics sale has been an ongoing event, the idea of featuring artists like Malmund, who hail from the ceramics program, is a recent addition.
“I wanted to let the community know we’re not just mugs and bowls,” Balcazar said. “We have a lot of talent hidden in here, and [the sale] is just a way of showing that.”
If You Go
What: Community Center of La Cañada Flintridge’s spring ceramics sale
When: May 12, from 3 to 8 p.m.; May 13, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: 4469 Chevy Chase Drive.
More information: Call (818) 790-4353 or visit cclcf.org.
Twitter: @SaraCardine
