78-year-old Rosemary Otto is a self-taught, outsider artist whose work is both a form of creative expression and has helped in her recovery from mental illness. Born in Germany to an American mother and German father, Rosemary now lives in the house where she was raised: her great-grandmother’s house in Lake Worth, Florida, where she paints in between visits to the nearby senior center and her doctor appointments. In today’s show, Rosemary talks about the box of crayons that sparked her interest in art as a child, her mother’s influence, how she manages from day to day and why living in a nursing home is worse than being in a mental hospital. She also tells us about her new series of paintings, “The Invisible Women,” which challenges us to think differently about the older adults around us.
Rosemary’s work: The Box Gallery Facebook Page
For residents of Palm Beach County: Palm Tran – Transportation
Music: “Empty Trees” (remix) by Ketsa | CC BY NC ND | Free Music Archive
I absolutely love Rosemary’s work, it is both quirky and thoughtful with colour and shape and a sense of being 3 dimensional at times due to her unusual technique of cutting and pasting shapes onto her canvas. Her signature is also a very precise cut out attached at the end of each piece of work. I am so delighted that now a new and wider audience will get to see and appreciate this fabulous work. Anyone who knows Rosemary will know what a joy she is to be with, she tells the most interesting stories that draw you into her world.
Thanks so much for your comments, Chris. Rosemary is indeed a delight, and extraordinarily talented.