The child of Addison and Frances Stroman, Ann lived on Detroit's East Side, near Gratiot Avenue, with brother Mark.

[1] Her teachers included painter Robert Wilbert as well as Detroit Lithography Workshop printmakers Theo Wujick and Aris Koutroulis.

The couple became residents of the Jeffries Housing Projects while both attended Wayne State, Ann studying art and Ken literature.

"[1] Formative influences include Georgia O'Keeffe and Jan van Eyck's St. Jerome in his Study (Mikolowski's favorite painting at the Detroit Institute of Arts).

"[4] Detroit’s Cass Corridor artists found a first, informal salon around Ken and Ann's kitchen table in their Avery St.

Both Ann and Ken Mikolowski were influenced by mixed-media and multimedia art practices, like their contemporaries (many close friends and contributors[6] to The Alternative Press) in the Cass Corridor, Beats, New York School, Black Mountain College, and Bolinas creative communities.

At present, 115 items listed in WorldCat document Ann's contributions to Alternative Press material, along with illustrations and cover art for other publications.

[21] A 1974 Willis Gallery group show included "Ann Mikolowski's life-size, photoreal rendering of a cow [Stella] flanked by, of all things, miniature paintings.

The land- and waterscapes can be as large as six by seven and a half feet, while the portraits are seldom taller or wider than three inches, and fit easily in the palm of one’s hand.

"[28] Mikolowski draws attention to scale not only as a play of small against large, but as studies of how objects impact consciousness in ordinary life: the outdoors, animals, Adirondack chairs, electrical poles, food, technology.

"[30] Mikolowski worked in oils on linen, watercolor, pen and ink, pastel, pencil sketches, and printmaking (silkscreen, lithography, linocut, wood engraving, drypoint, intaglio and relief printing).

For text illustration and printmaking, Mikolowski's techniques included intensive repetitive use of stipple and line, with attention to the impact of layers of impression and paper texture.

Ann painted, illustrated, printed, tended an extensive garden which fed the family, and taught as a high-school artist in residence.

In 1983, Mikolowski's miniature portraits were exhibited at solo shows, a collaboration with Detroit's Feigenson Gallery and New York City's Gotham Book Mart.