by Clifton Hangle
“Most of my work investigates that fine line between chaos and order. This [pandemic] is the ultimate chaos that we're living in,” declares Anna G. Dean, a winter/spring 2021 artist-in-residence here at McColl Center, in partnership with Atrium Health.
“What is this pandemic? And what is this doing to us?”
That’s the question Dean asks and the reason why she proposed working on an artistic project about COVID-19.
“I needed to spend time with it; I needed to understand it on a personal level. Just trying to share what's happening and just begin to tell that story, as much for my own self as for the viewer.”
Dean’s inquisitive and empathetic nature propelled her forward, as did the access to Atrium Health’s resources and data.
“The story that I thought was important to tell was about the geography of Charlotte and how certain areas were getting impacted more heavily than others,” she adds.
“The more I interviewed people, the more I began to understand that there's so many more layers.”
Dean's artist residency at McColl Center is just the start of this project, which she continues to work on, after her residency, in her Rock Hill, South Carolina studio.
McColl Center’s years-long partnership with Atrium Health provides artists like Dean with a specialized approach to the creative process. That unparalleled connection to healthcare professionals, her private studio at McColl Center, and access to digital media and 3-D labs equipped to accommodate her needs are just a few of the things that make artist residencies at McColl Center game-changers for working artists.