Why Alison OK Frost Doesn’t Want to Paint Sad Paintings that Make You Cry

This episode is dedicated to Bay Area artist Gary Hackett, who died suddenly. He was a good friend of Alison OK Frost, and this episode was postponed out of respect for her. We are grateful for Hackett’s presence in the Bay Area: an artist precariously housed and studiously generous with his time and care. It’s a little less colourful now, with him gone.

We go with realist painter and arts educator Alison OK Frost to the Mosswood Park homeless encampment in Oakland, California. Frost is interested in humanity and creativity; she paints from photographs taken of homeless encampment citizen architecture (tents, tarps, wheelchairs, trees, mannequins, and other artefacts of ingenuity). It’s a hot day and Jozefien is feeling really woozy.* We help Frost deliver socks and bottles of water to camp residents, make friends with an artist named Rose, and find out why Frost wants her daughter and her students to learn more about the “two Bay Areas.”

*Jozefien is pregnant with her daughter, Rosie. She doesn’t know it yet!

Alison OK Frost's website: http://www.alisonokfrost.com
Alison OK Frost on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alisonok
East Oakland Burrito Roll on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/east_oakland_burrito_roll

What is Social Practice Art? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_practice_(art)

Beautiful Online Thing: the 'Flower Bae' exhibition at General Hardware Contemporary

For a visual tour and transcript of this interview, visit the ART CRUSH INTERNATIONAL WEBSITE: https://artcrushinternational.com/alison-ok-frost.html
ART CRUSH INTERNATIONAL on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artcrush_international