John Anderson (1932-2011)

John Anderson explored inner realms and made the unconscious visible. Inspired by his mentor Gordon Onslow Ford, Anderson used lines, circles, and dots to express ego, dreams, intuitions, and psyche. He developed his style guided by esoteric psychological experiences that he called SIME Simultaneous ME, as described in his 2001 book “Beginner’s Beginning.”

Anderson studied art at the University of Illinois, Mexico City College, and California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland in the 1950s and then became studio assistant to Onslow Ford. He built his Inverness Ridge home on Onslow Ford’s land among a community of artists that drew such creative associations as Ruth Asawa, Isamu Noguchi, Roberto Matta, and Alan Watts. Anderson became an important and prolific painter, known for his intellect, wry humor, meditating before painting, and inner vision. Anderson’s work was featured in a solo exhibition in the Bolinas Museum in 2006 and has been exhibited in New York and San Francisco, including major exhibitions in the Weinstein Gallery in 2009 and Crocker Museum in 2010.