{"id":293,"date":"2020-08-05T10:21:01","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T14:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/creative-arts-showcase\/?p=293"},"modified":"2020-08-14T17:51:08","modified_gmt":"2020-08-14T21:51:08","slug":"lauren-anderson-painting-and-textile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/creative-arts-showcase\/2020\/08\/05\/lauren-anderson-painting-and-textile\/","title":{"rendered":"Lauren Anderson, Painting, Woodcrafts, & Textiles"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Painted<\/a>

“Reflection”, acrylic collage, 2019<\/p><\/div>\n

Lauren Anderson is the Content Production Coordinator in Smith\u2019s Office of College Relations.\u00a0 She is relatively new to Smith, but very happy to be here.\u00a0 Lauren holds a Ph.D. in African American history. Her education and former career as a professor meant a lot of moving around; she\u2019s lived in Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, California, Kentucky and Iowa.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Coat<\/a>

One<\/a> of Lauren’s “What a gay day<\/a>” coatracks (because it’s too nice a day for anyone or anything to be in the closet!)<\/p><\/div>\n

Lauren and her wife, Heidi, moved to Northampton three years ago\u2014the first time Lauren ever moved because she wanted to live in a place, not because her education or career dictated that she live there. In fact, moving here involved a huge career change\u2014from professor to (at least temporarily) coffee shop barista. But, for Lauren, the drastic change was worthwhile because she knew that in Massachusetts her marriage and hoped-for family would be protected.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Watercolor<\/a>

“Upper East Side” watercolor, 2017. Question--why does everyone presume<\/a> it is her bag that he is carrying?<\/p><\/div>\n

Lauren and Heidi are both dedicated to creating a more just and equitable world. Working as a special education teacher at Jackson Street School allows Heidi to pursue that goal. Though Lauren no longer teaches or writes for academic presses<\/a>, she still hopes to make an impact through writing. Her current plans (ideas?) involve writing a creative non-fiction book about her awkward attempts to become an anti-racist white person beginning around 2001. Her idea is to narrate two parallel stories. One would be her own struggle to deprogram her brain of racist ideology\u00a0in the early twenty-first century\u00a0while researching the life of Juliette Derricotte,\u00a0a phenomenal woman with whom Lauren shares\u00a0some interesting parallels (Christian upbringing, queerness, curiosity, travel, the way natural beauty refreshes their spirits, and academics). The other would be Juliette Derricotte’s own story through her letters<\/a>, testimonies from her friends and creative imaginings as she at first thrived<\/a> during early twentieth century before being\u00a0killed<\/a> by Jim Crow racism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lauren is telling herself the book can lean heavily on the \u201ccreative\u201d part of \u201ccreative non-fiction\u201d because her historian\u2019s brain won’t let her write a memoir if she doesn’t remember things perfectly. This project is currently paused because there are *so many* bad books by white authors about race. Lauren wants to make sure that, on the whole, her book will add to the sum-total of anti-racism in the world, not detract from it. And because there are masks to make!<\/span><\/p>\n