Today we’d like to introduce you to Linda Anderson.
Linda, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I’ve been an artist since a young child, drawing and painting whatever I could see, particularly people. I love challenging myself with realism. I earned a BFA and MFA from Otis Art Institute of Los Angeles County, and promptly found a job teaching art to middle and high school students. After a few years, I went back to school and earned a MA in counseling and morphed into being a therapist for a few years.
I returned to the visual arts and trained interior decorators how to use art and accessories in their designs. I was always finding ways to keep my fingers in the visual world of color and design. And I always kept drawing. I have also been an avid seamstress, making most of the clothes I put on my back since the age of 12. In 1997, my husband had an opportunity not to work for a few years and we (including our 10-year-old daughter) went sailing for a few years, having sold 99% of everything we owned. We left from Dana Point and ended up in Trinidad and Tobago and stayed there for 10 years where I was working as a guidance counselor at an international school. And I continued to sew and draw. Upon returning to the US in 2008, I saw my first art quilt and immediately knew this was what I was supposed to do with the rest of my life. I always knew I would return to my art full time one day, I just didn’t know what it would look like. Fine art quilts brought together the consistent passions in my life: drawing and painting, and sewing. I have taught myself how to work in this medium and have been awarded numerous national and international prizes. I have exhibited in 4 countries to date and have been published in various books, magazines and newspapers.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Everyone everywhere has a story. I am compelled and attracted to find that moment that captures the essence of the person and share it through the medium of fine art quilts. Merging the two elements that are closest to my heart, drawing and sewing, I create stitched paintings.
What grabs my heart the most are peoples of different cultures and circumstances. A lot of my work is about expressing the uniqueness of humans around the world, while celebrating the ordinary moments of people doing what they do that often goes unnoticed. I want my narratives to help reinforce our sense of shared identity. It is the combination of high drama from strong value contrast and color that catch your eye and the gentle delicacy seen up close with intense detail work that defines my approach to fine art quilts.
What do you know now that you wished you had learned earlier?
Keep looking, keep seeing, keep imagining, keep wondering………..then DO. Don’t over think and wait for the “right moment” or the “right feeling”. Once you DO the actions and behavior of creating, the feelings come and support the actions, not the other way around. It takes a lot of discipline and commitment, and a strong work ethic. Trust your voice to tell you what you want to say. Listen to yourself, not others. Then DO. Keep learning. Through the quantity you will get quality.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
People can view my work on line at www.laartquilts.com. I mostly exhibit nationally, and only occasionally in So. Calif. I will, however, be having a solo exhibit of my work at Front Porch Gallery in Carlsbad, CA. March 10-April 20, with the opening reception is Sunday March 10 from 12-2 PM. This will be the first time I will have an extensive show in San Diego area, titled “Stories of Us”. I also sell fine art giclees of many of my original fine art quilts on my Store page online. The Union-Tribune Arts and Culture section did a full-page article on my creating an art quilt of a local jazz pianist, Joshua White, in 2016, as well as San Diego Home and Garden magazine selected me as a Star of San Diego in 2017 with a full-page article.
Contact Info:
- Address: La Mesa, CA
- Website: www.laartquilts.com
- Phone: 619-876-1609
- Email: andersonlinda2@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/linda.anderson2
- Facebook: facebook.com/laartquilts
Image Credit:
Jamie Hamel-Smith, Eduardo Contreras
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