“When I start a painting, I don’t have a vision for what it will become. It’s more like a call and response, where I listen to and look at what is happening in the painting and then respond,” says Trina Anderson, who has lived in Rockridge since 1992. Her paintings are often influenced by what she has seen during her many walks around Oakland.
Some of what she has seen around encampments for the unhoused include collections of things they have gathered to give them a greater sense of home. While Trina’s paintings are abstract, some are reminiscent of these encampments, with shapes of tents recognizable. She often collects pieces of flyers, fencing, or fabric to add to her paintings. Once her paintings are complete, she may give them names such as Citadel and Bayside Assemblages.
“If you’re a realistic painter, you often have to plan what will go where before you start painting,” explains Trina. “But as an abstract painter, I can let the creative process unfold. I love that process!”
Among Trina’s favorite artists are Robert Rauschenberg and abstract expressionists such as Joan Mitchell. Trina does not consider herself an abstract expressionist but appreciates the emotional way they used paint. She also loves the way Rauschenberg mixed everyday objects with art-making materials and sometimes does the same in her own work.
Growing up in Minnesota, Trina remembers painting and drawing in her architect father’s studio, which was on the top floor of their house. Initially, she wanted to be an architect, and then an interior designer. But after a few years working in the residential design field, she decided to attend California College of Arts and Crafts, located near her Rockridge home. There she majored in textiles and also studied weaving, painting, and printmaking. After graduating, she became an Artist-in-Residence at Kala Art Institute, a fine art printmaking hub in Berkeley.
While pregnant with her son Spencer, and after he was born, Trina wanted to stay away from the chemicals involved in printmaking. But she always found a way to remain creative—such as by making costumes and quilts and teaching art to children. When her son was in high school, she returned to Kala for a while, expanding beyond printmaking to work in acrylics and mixed media. When her son moved away and started a career, she began to dedicate more time to her painting.
These days, Trina typically works in her studio in West Oakland five or six days a week, from around noon to 5 or 6 p.m. She often works on four or five paintings at a time, and creates an average of eight large paintings and 10 to 15 smaller paintings each year.
For the past five years, Trina has been selling her paintings through Open Studios and is already planning for the next event, June 6–7. You can see her listed closer to the date at www.eastbayopenstudios.com. The majority of her clients are Rockridge residents.
While Trina uses mixed media and creates paintings of all sizes, she tends to sell the most of her 12×12-inch paintings (typically priced at $350). Her website is not currently active, but you can contact Trina at trinsk@comcast.net if you’d like to visit her studio and see more of her work.
