We recently had the chance to connect with Serena Potter and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Serena, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
Around 6:30 I say good morning to Harry, my wonderful polydactyl orange tabby. We go go make coffee and join my husband in the living room to watch the school parade, listen to my headspace app daily wake up, set my intentions , meditate or journal. Then I get dressed grab a peanut butter sandwich and head out to join the Norwich Forrest Bathers (a group of ten badass women) for our hour hike through the woods at Mohegan Park. Today it was 11 degrees when we left the house. As long as it isn’t raining, we hike.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am a full time artist, part time Professor of art and art history. I predominantly work as a painter in oils, but have also worked in mixed media charcoal, some sculpture and performance/film. I recoil from having to label my work, because it is many things. We live, however, in a world that insists on labels. Others have defined my work as figurative narrative, hyperrealist, feminist, sardonic, “neo-modernist”, and “anxious realist” (P.Frank, essay, 2018).
2025 was a year of transition for me. My husband, Daughter and I packed up our house of 15 years in Southern California and moved across the country to the small historic city of Norwich, Connecticut. No, we’d never been there. No, we didn’t know anyone there. We just took a leap into the unknown. We bought a fabulous 1840’s Gothic Revival home, complete with 46 windows. I have a well lit studio/gallery space and storage/supply room. We are in an urban area, and yet surrounded by nature- waterfalls are one block away, woodchuck living in our crawl space, dear wandering the yard.
My life has changed and I imagine so will my art, though the essence will, I expect, remain the same. We moved in four months ago and yet, have made so many good people.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
People always said I was quiet, shy and nice – how I hated being called nice. To me that was the ultimate in boring! For a long time I believed them, but as I grew into my teens, a determined, outspoken, original me emerged.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
Before I entered grad school I had been chronically ill for seven years, spending most of my day in bed, managing pain and other disabling symptoms. I did attempt to paint during this time. It was often the only thing I was capable of, even if just a daily, quick find an object and paint it. As others who experience invisible illness know, it can make your world feel very small. You feel as if no one can understand what you are going through, that the pain is beyond words. After finding some relief of my symptoms (a long story), I decided to take the risk and go back to school. I had no idea if I could pull it off. It was though during my first semester, that I realized I could paint about my illness. I had always just painted what I could observe. I’d never tried painting my experience, my feelings. The first painting in my thesis was called “Down Again” and was really the painting that changed everything. I learned that I had a voice and could use painting as a medium to use that voice.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
It’s part of the real me, but never all of the real me. When in public, especially say, at an art open, or other event, I am at work. I put on the uniform, the smile, the confidence, and make an effort to engage, read a room, make new connections and reinforce the old. I have a couple of artist friends with whom I feel I can be my most real. At the core of these friendships is respect and humor. When we get together we play and we laugh, sometimes after a cry.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
Gosh, I’ve never given thought to that sort of thing. I am so focused on being present, mindful, being immersed in my creativity, that I’ve not given a lot of thought to what comes after. I hope that I will be recognized for having created a significant body work that is a relevant oracle of my time here.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://serenapotter.com
- Instagram: serena_muse
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/serena-potter-379709a/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/serena.potter.35
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
