Jewelry + Metalsmithing major Anthony Anderson 18 JM discovered his talent for the medium by happy accident during his first year at RISD. | photo by Jo Sittenfeld MFA 08 PH
When verbal communication eluded him as a young child, Anthony Anderson 18 JM focused on making art instead. “When I was four I used to fill little Monopoly houses with different colored crayon shavings and press them against a space heater to make my own crayon colors,” he says. “Art was something I could control, [so] my lack of control in other areas made me want to hone my artistic side.”
Today Anderson is thriving as a Jewelry + Metalsmithing major, learning new ways to use art to champion social justice. “RISD has instilled in me the belief that you can say things with artwork that matter,” says the junior, who came to the US from the Philippines as a baby and grew up in southern Rhode Island with his adoptive parents.
Beaming at how much their son loved drawing – and how seriously he took it – Anderson’s parents arranged for him to take painting lessons with Solace Loven, a local artist who taught him that “art could be something I do for the rest of my life.” For years, her studio provided the perfect place for exploring his creative talents and passions, which he continued to do in high school at Providence’s LaSalle Academy.