I’m excited to be part of this article & really enjoyed chatting with Sarah Hotchkiss from KQED’s Arts & Culture about my experiences as an artist during the pandemic. You can read excerpts from our interview and other Bay Area creative’s experiences over this crazy year. I was derailed at the beginning of the pandemic, I’d been preparing for a solo show so I really needed to get my focus back on track. So I kept my daily studio schedule and spent my time stretching canvases, gessoing, organizing my space, archiving old work until I felt ready to truly focus and get back into painting-mode. My interview is below. Please check out the complete article here.
Lorene Anderson, Oakland visual artist
Lorene Anderson, ‘Cleaving Grain,’ 2020; acrylic on panel, 18 x 24 inches. (Courtesy the artist)
“I had been scheduled for a solo show that was supposed to open last fall. So I was working really hard, but when the shutdown happened, everything kind of came to a screeching halt. … After a few days, I decided I wanted to keep the thread of my regular studio practice. I go five days a week, and I was lucky that it was still accessible—I have friends whose buildings were locked.
“I felt really compelled to look over the past 30 years of my old work. I don’t know if it’s that feeling of mortality and ‘What’s going to happen to all of us?’ but elements of old work have started creeping into my current work. … Sometimes I feel like I’m just hurtling through my life and studio practice, and to stop and make thoughtful decisions and reflections was something I hadn’t done in a long time, if ever. …
“I can be very self-deprecating and doubtful about stuff and maybe not so brave and I think [the pandemic] has made me get rid of that BS, and I feel braver, in a way, about my own work.”
