Ann Dizikes OBITUARY

Ann Dizikes, an accomplished handweaver and beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and friend, died peacefully at home in April with her children present. Ann had tenaciously battled dementia in recent years. She was 89. A resident of Santa Cruz for nearly 60 years, Ann moved to town in 1965 with her husband, John Dizikes, a founding faculty member at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Ann was creative, principled, and gracious. Her life was rooted in family and friendship, while branching into weaving, university activities, cooking, gardening, and the arts. Ann was an inventive traditionalist whose tastes and outlook blended elements of her native England and her adopted home of California.As a weaver, Ann experimented with many kinds of textiles before developing an expertise in silk scarves and shawls. She created garments that were both functional and aesthetically distinctive. Possessing a sharp eye for color, Ann carefully planned her works, combining intuition and precision. Ann’s weaving career began in 1968 with lessons from a friend, Ann Thimann. She also studied with Berkeley-based Lillian Eliott, while joining the Santa Cruz Handweavers Guild. Later, she studied color with Bay Area hand-dye expert Michele Wipplinger, refining techniques essential to Ann’s evolving work. In writing, Ann once called the Santa Cruz guild members a “generous weaving community,” noting, “I’ve never had anything but help from other weavers.” Two trips to India, in 1989 and 1990, helped motivate an expansion of her color palette. Ann put considerable effort into design and then dyeing silk fibers in a backyard work area before weaving her pieces at the loom.”I like weaving because there are so many rules,” Ann once wrote. “You have a grid, you’re confined by various structures, and you have to struggle to transcend them.” She added: “The trick is to make it seem easy.” Ann’s work was exhibited at the Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery at Cowell College, UCSC, the Cabrillo Gallery, the Palo Alto Cultural Center, the Santa Cruz Art League, the Santa Cruz Art Center, and many private galleries. She participated in community craft events such as Santa Cruz Open Studios and the Corn Roast in Swanton. Ann was twice commissioned to weave altar cloths for the Order of Poor Clares, in the 1990s.In 2012, she was honored by the opening of the Ann Dizikes Annex in Cowell College, an exhibit space linked to the Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery. Simultaneously, Ann was a full partner in John’s career, supporting his work and hosting an immense number of university gatherings, including weekly events when John was provost of Cowell College. Ann also made hundreds of social occasions possible at the family home. A perceptive, good-humored presence at such events, Ann was known for superb cooking. As with her weaving, Ann’s sophisticated meals transcended structures, and she mastered the trick of making it seem easy (it wasn’t).Ann was born Ann Morris in 1935, to Christopher and Helen Morris, scholars at the University of Cambridge, in England. Ann’s life was shaped by three extended stays in the United States. From 1940 until 1944, during World War Two, Ann was sent to live with relatives in Pennsylvania, while her parents worked at Bletchley Park, the British wartime center for decoding enemy communications. She returned to England and studied at St. Christopher School in Letchworth, where a dear aunt, Mary Muray, worked. Ann then entered the working world, including a multi-year spell in New York City in the 1950s, her second stint in the states. Ann and John met when he was voyaging to England to conduct PhD research. They were married in 1964. Ann’s third and longest stay in the U.S. comprised most of her life: After a year at the University of Connecticut, Ann and John moved to Santa Cruz. Ann maintained a close marriage with John, enduring a shared sadness when Virginia, one of their twin daughters, was born with spina bifida and meningitis, and died at age four.Ann made friends from many spheres of Santa Cruz life. Ann and John’s house was rich in visitors, and enriched by them. An energetic person, Ann was an early-morning swimmer, an avid walker, and a world traveler. She survived colon cancer and heart surgery in her last two decades. In her final years, Ann was supported by staunch friends and conscientious caregivers. Ann is survived by her daughter, Helen Sanders, Helen’s husband Rick Sanders, and their daughters, Isabelle and Vivian; and by her son, Peter Dizikes, Peter’s wife Mary Lewis, and their sons Sebastian and Simon. She is predeceased by her husband, John; her elder daughter, Virginia; and her brother, Charles Morris. A memorial event is being planned.