Foraging for Hope: A Photo Encaustic Narrative
Artist Deb Anderson shares a little of her back story, discusses photo encaustics, and introduces Foraging for Hope in this video.
Inspired to create a series of photo encaustic images during recovery from a traumatic car accident, artist Deb Anderson sought to showcase hope that she found in everyday sights. “I was left with a closed head, traumatic brain injury,” Deb explained to attendees of her exhibit, now on display in the Same Day Surgery wing at Alomere Hospital in Alexandria, Minnesota. “The spinning took with it my very sense of being: who I was, the skills I’d honed, and hope.”
At an opening reception for the exhibit on Thursday, November 17th, 2022, Deb further explained her process, stating that “from the beginning, Foraging directed me. It had a message to convey.”
Hope Doesn’t Just Land on You – You Need to Forage for it.
When asked where her inspiration for this exhibit started, Deb says, “it began with the plant pushing up through the tar saying, ‘If I can do this, you can, too!’”
A total of 18 pieces are included in Deb’s exhibit. Each piece is accompanied by a short, descriptive video (produced by AMS Digital Productions) to provide meaning, backstories, and elicit the spark of awareness to patients, visitors, volunteers, and hospital staff, so that they too will forage for and find hope.
At the end of her artist statement, Deb left those attending the exhibit’s reception with a powerful statement that reflects the overall theme of what it means to forage for hope. “You are each artists,” she explained, “and - to quote Brené Brown, ‘art has the power to render sorrow beautiful, make loneliness a shared experience, and transform despair into hope’ - for yourself and for those fortunate enough to be influenced by you.”
Click on the titles below to learn more about each piece featured in the exhibit.
Deb was one of nine artists to receive funding from LRAC’s historic Legacy Grant Round in April of 2022. This funding enabled her to acquire the necessary materials for creating and displaying the images currently on display in Foraging for Hope. This exhibit, along with the other projects funded by Legacy Grants, will further LRAC’s mission of providing art access, art education, and arts cultural heritage to residents throughout our nine-county region.
“Foraging for Hope: A Photo Encaustic Narrative” is currently on display and open to the public.
