Lois Anderson - The Artist as Cast-off Collector

She has been a bohemian, a beatnik and a hippie, in that order. She found her own muse late in life, and until she did, she was a self-described artist's 'madonna', keeping them in socks and cereal while they did their life's work. This might give you a hint that Lois Anderson is one of the older visionaries, but her spirit is as young as if that muse just tapped her on the shoulder yesterday.

"I was an art 'madonna'; I fed artists and paid the rent, co-habited with a painter for many years. We lived in New York and hung out with Bohemians and then Beatniks and finally hippies; they were all artists, but I was waiting for the right thing to come along.
"Dickens Bascome and Larry Fuente were two of the original glue artists in this area. In the early 1970's, Dickens lived in Larkspur, and made a sculpture out of a car by gluing objects all over it. I saw it and thought it was amazing, and suddenly I realized that I had to do this, too. I started collecting junk and made my first piece. 
"After one or two small pieces that were admittedly rather awkward, I made a dresser which wound up in The Oakland Museum. I made it in 1972; in 1984, when The Oakland Museum redid their second floor American History exhibit, there was a different space for each decade of this century. They were looking for the ultimate hippie, psychedelic art object for their 1960's exhibit, and at the time the dresser was in The Old Unknown Museum. A curator came over from the museum to see it, asked me what I wanted for it, and I made up a figure. They bought it, and now it's there forever."
Anderson is the only artist in this book who has the distinction of having received an N.E.A. grant. That was in 1978, and it was lucky for her the rules were a little more lax then, with more understanding for artists. Because The Altar, Anderson's triumphal piece, the one she received the grant to do, took three-and-a-half years to complete, and the idea is to finish your grant piece in one -- the year you receive the grant! Every year Anderson wrote the N.E.A. committee to say the piece wasn't quite finished, but it was well worth the effort in the end, because it has been shown in many places. A difficult task since it must be disassembled to be transported, and then put back together again. Anderson explains what 'The Altar' is meant to be...
"On the altar I tried to use icons from all the world religions, but you know I couldn't get them all. When the altar is in an exhibition, they put a plaque on the wall about the artist and where he/she got the inspiration for the piece. I put in that this is my homage to world religions, and somebody always walks up to me and says, 'You don't have Ubangis here', or something like that." 
Why and how does the choose her materials, particularly her icons? They reflect cultures and world religions, the bizarre and the mundane. "I use the matter of the world (cast-offs, mix-matches, discards) to bring about a resplendency. The end result can be an amalgam of the sacred, the humorous, the cultural, the folkloric, the sardonic or the profane, dependent upon the wide variety of objects I use in my mosaic forms. The objects used (beads, jewelry, statues, icons, etc.) can also reflect religious, classical, or pop art influences.
"My intention is to give a new vision of matter and breathe new life into already existing concepts as they take on another form."
She has lived a life full to overflowing, and she's far from finished yet. Like most artists, she has supported herself in other ways; mostly as a librarian. She grew up in Milwaukee and took a degree in Education from Wisconsin State College. She went to New York to study dance under Martha Graham, and finally arrived in California. 
For nearly thirty years she has scoured flea markets and garage sales for supplies, with the result that her house is the repository for the most wonderful finds -- she even has a small room just for vintage clothing, hats, shoes and other goodies. Along with her signature art pieces, it makes for a treasure that is the perfect setting for such an eclectic woman.
Only one insult stays with her -- when she was interviewed for an article that wound up in a tabloid called The National Examiner. It wasn't that they said Lois used 'trash' to create her art rather than the beads, icons and jewels she painstakingly collects that annoyed her...it was that the interviewer called her a 'housewife'! Out of all her roles, Anderson has never been a housewife.
What does the future hold for Anderson? Plenty, you bet. Several years ago she was involved in a large group showing that was rather unusual...
"Several years ago I participated in a big group show called 'The Breast Project', organized by two woman named Laura Lengyel and Sharry Rose. I don't have any blatantly breast pieces, but years ago I did this piece made out of old Maidenform brassiere forms from a department store, then put all these little baby dolls all over it. It's called Mother Goddess. My work doesn't have what you would call 'naturalistic' breasts, but they asked me to participate anyway." 
And at the end of 1999, Lois was involved in her first showing at the new Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. Entitled "Far Out: Bay Area Design From 1967-73", it ran from November 12, 1999 until February 20, 2000. The piece shown in the exhibition was The Throne. The Altar is now on permanent display at a gallery in North Beach called The Dreaming Room. You may visit it at: 245 Columbus Street in San Francisco. 
Visit Anderson's art at these websites: www.Artnetwork.com/sculptor/loisanderson
www.sfaltarart@aol.com
To send her an e-mail, write to: lois@artnetwork.com or SfAltarArt@att.bi
This article provided by <a href="http://www.mediocom/net">MedioCom</a>.