In early 2016, the Co-op launched our Art in the Café program to showcase the work of our member-owner and staff artists in our café seating area. Our month-long local art exhibits are geared toward creating a pleasant dining experience for café customers.

Our featured café artist for November, Linda Hogan, believes that photography is all about slowing down life enough to see and capture something beautiful in the everyday world. We talked with Linda about her creative process. The following are excerpts from our conversation.

Describe the art you are presenting in the Co-op café this month. 
There is so much beauty to see in our day to day journeys, be it in our own community or expeditions beyond to other places. I always carry a camera to remind me to slow down and take in the familiar, the changes inherent in light and seasons, or exploring new landscapes both outside and interiors. The photographs are a journal of some of the things I have seen and chose to share with my community.

When did you first start making art, and how has your practice changed over time?
I was always very close to my Grandparents. My Grandmother was a well know artist on Cape Cod. She was my first mentor and taught me the principles of painting, starting when I was very young. We worked in watercolor, oil, casein, pastels and we explored both figurative and abstract themes. She also taught me printmaking, paper making, collage, and Sumi brushwork. The years of painting studies were a solid foundation for the way I approach photography. I continued my studies in both painting and photography at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Goddard College.

Name three artists who inspire you or that you’d love to be compared to.
Billy Brauer, Francis Bacon, and Kathe Kolowitz have all inspired the way I approach the visual arts. I also gravitate to the Symbolist and Decadent period of the fin de siecle of the late 1800s.

What is a fun fact about you that many people don’t know?
I am an avid angler practicing catch and release.

Interested in becoming a featured artist? The Art in the Café program is open to all current member-owners and staff. Find our application here.