Contemporary self-taught artist Linda Anderson claims to have been given the gift of art from God when her child was sick. During the winter of 1981-1982, while caring for her bed-ridden daughter, she prayed to God for her daughter’s health. However, instead she received a sense or vision that things were as they were meant to be, and while her daughter would not regain her health, Anderson was to receive a gift, instead, to soothe her and help her with the loss. Soon after, she began to have visions of her life, her family, and her community in the south, which she then committed to canvas.
Folk art scholars and collectors have only studied these family and community paintings, classifying Anderson as a memory painter. However, this terminology does not encompass her entire oeuvre, as it ignores her Biblical paintings, abstract paintings, and portraits. This focus on her visions and the nostalgia her paintings inspire deny Anderson's agency as an artist. In her 2009 book Flashes of Memory: An Appalachian Self-Portrait, Anderson describes the history and background of several of her paintings, and frequently says that when she is holding the brush, she can make any kind of changes she wants. Through analysis of her paintings and her writings, it is clear that Anderson communicates ideas and makes artistic choices. This thesis examines her works that have been described as memory paintings, as well as her Garden of Eden scenes, with attention to the way she inserts, consciously and unconsciously, her own voice.