Linda Anderson

Linda Anderson, a memory painter living in Clarksville, Georgia, evokes the realities of her childhood growing up in the rural mountains of North Georgia. Many of her works depict scenes of family celebrations and agricultural serenity triggered by her memories of working in the fields, flashbacks from Sunday school and activities of her parents: her father making moonshine and her mother sewing and embroidering. In Fannie Mae Scott, Midwife (1985), we are invited inside a hearty provincial home, to a picturesque family gathering, to witness her mother giving birth. At once wistful and deeply spiritual, Anderson envisions the midwife Fannie, who delivered all the children in her family, leaning over her mother and taking on the role of a priest-doctor.

Typically including small figures, dominated by nature, and immaculately detailed and executed, Anderson’s paintings are deeply rooted in an undeniable quality of storytelling. Although many of her works burst with rural tranquil scenes and idealized family life, all of her pieces are spiritually informed. Twenty years ago Anderson prayed for a way to relieve her pain of watching her young daughter passing away; she considers her art a gift from God, to which she has completely given herself over by painting images revealed to her through prayer. Her paintings, many of which are overlaid with Bible stories and images, thus become small, private devotions dealing with (sometimes) painful realities of life.  In the Sunrise on the Peaceable Kingdom (2001) she reveals a utopian depiction of the peaceable kingdom, as anticipated by the prophet Isaiah, where children can play near snake holes, and calves and lions live together. Anderson portrays her daughter here in three different places: playing harmoniously with exotic animals, engulfed by lush vegetation and, like the prophet envisioned, living in peace in a time where all of God’s creations are redeemed.

Anderson, an untrained artist, creates pieces lined with intellectual undercurrents, some of which appear hyper realistically while others in more abstract terms. In Storm Rising Over Eden (1994), Eve holds a pomegranate split in half perhaps mirroring Feminist artists who often evoke stylized images of female genitalia and thus recalls social expectations of womanhood.  The exotic animals and vegetation in The Garden of Eden (2005) are painted from imagination in but inspired by Frida Kahlo’s jungle pictures both in their formal qualities and in their pure portrayal. Anderson has felt mysteriously drawn to Kahlo ever since she came across her photograph in a magazine while sitting in a beauty shop.

Perhaps because of the meticulous details, brilliant colors, and their child-like innocence, Anderson’s pieces, although sprung from deep personal hardships, are delightfully pleasant and humorous. Her art fits into many categories: she is a memory painter and folk artist; she reflects her experience of the world in deep psychological and spiritual terms; most importantly, she is a storyteller—a keeper of legends.

—Maja Tokic ‘07

Storm Rising over Eden
oil on canvas
36" x 24"

The Garden of Eden
2005
oil on canvas
30" x 30"