Encouraged in the arts at an early age, Ann compiled her first art portfolio when she was 11 yrs old for admittance to a performing arts middle school.  Initially studying Art History at the University of Pittsburgh, her love of art developed roots in the western tradition, through which she was inspired to not only study, but also create her own work in dialogue with artists of the past and the people of today.

Moving to California to earn her MFA in painting at the Laguna College of Art and Design, the peculiarity of the Catholic faith in which she was raised became the conceptual starting point for her work. This first manifested through painted studies of Sacred Relics, which then led to the study of St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body” through her MFA Thesis work.  She continued to explore the relationship between theology and lived experience when she encountered the loss of her husband (GySgt Justin Schmalstieg, KIA Afghanistan, 2010).  Expressing the experience of mortality and sorrow from the Catholic perspective through still life paintings, this focus ultimately culminated in her Illuminated Requiem Series (2018).

Marrying again in 2020, Ann currently resides in Pittsburgh, PA.  Working in both oil and encaustic, she creates paintings suitable to assist in prayer for public and private settings.