Anne Mercer Kesler Shields

Anne Mercer Kesler Shields, 80, a lifelong resident of Winston-Salem, devoted wife, mother and grandmother, died peacefully on October 6, 2012 at the Wake Forest Medical Center. She was born January 27, 1932 in Winston-Salem to the late Mr. and Mrs. John Malcolm Kesler. Mrs. Shields is survived by her husband of 51 years, Howard William Shields; daughter Carolyn Mercer Shields and husband, Stephen Andrew Thomas of Reston, VA and their daughter Anne Mercer Thomas; son Burton Kesler Shields and wife Michele Brumley Shields of Arlington, VA, and children Casey, Luke and Zachary Shields; son John Kesler Shields and wife Susan Mizell Shields of Mooresville, NC, and children Kate, Jack and Elizabeth Shields.

Mrs. Shields attended Summit School and graduated from Reynolds High School (1950). She received a classical art education at Hollins College (1954), and pursued advanced art studies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, ME (1956), and the Hans Hoffmann School of Fine Art in Provincetown, MA (1957). She received an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (1961).

Mrs. Shields, an accomplished artist, was highly active in developing the art community in Winston-Salem. As an artist she worked in a variety of mediums and genres, including portraiture, abstract painting, landscape and collages. In her more recent work she often used appropriated images from current events and pop culture juxtaposed with classical art works.

She helped to found Associated Artists of Winston-Salem and the Winston-Salem Gallery of Fine Arts, which became the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA). She served on SECCA’s original Board of Directors. She was also a member of the Five Winston-Salem Printmakers, whose woodcuts, etchings, and silk screen prints were shown throughout the Southeast during the 1960s and ‘70s. In 1988 she joined the Artworks artists’ cooperative, in whose downtown gallery she had many solo exhibitions. Through Portraits Inc., her New York agent for portraiture, Mrs. Shields was commissioned to paint subjects across the United States. In the Southeast she had many solo exhibitions and was included in numerous group exhibitions. Her work was represented in 200 Years of Art in North Carolina at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC. This Fall her artistic accomplishments are being showcased in her hometown in a three-venue retrospective at the Salem College Fine Arts Center, SECCA and Wake Forest University’s Hanes Gallery.

Mrs. Shields was a longtime member of the Wake Forest Baptist Church and the Junior League of Winston-Salem.

Visitation for family and friends will be on Friday, October 12th at Vogler’s Funeral Home on Reynolda Road from 5pm to 7pm. A service of celebration of Mrs. Shields’ life will be held in Wait Chapel at the Wake Forest Baptist Church on Saturday, October 13th at 3 pm. Burial will follow at Forsyth Memorial Park. Family and friends are invited to the Shields’ home following the burial for a reception.

The family wishes to thank the many friends who have been so caring and shown much kindness and love to them during Mrs. Shields’ sickness.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Artworks Gallery, 564 N Trade Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27101.