Artist celebrates growing old with ‘Feeling Our Age' exhibit in Laguna Niguel

Los Angeles Times

2 days ago

Kathleen Cosgrove used to be a lobbyist, but when she turned 50 she sold her business and went to art school, trading persuasion for paintbrushes.
Cosgrove, raised in Berkeley in the 1960s, believes both pursuits are connected.
'It's all about the same thing, and that is feeling like I want to make the world a better place, pining for social justice and human rights,' she said. 'I had that ingrained in me at a very young age, and it stuck with me all the way through. The only thing that's really changed is that art has become my voice, and that's really what this project is all about.'
That project is the 'Feeling Our Age' exhibition, featuring 60 portraits of women ages 60 or older from around the country and all walks of life. Cosgrove, who is based in Vancouver, Wash. and also has a studio in Portland, painted all of the artworks. She also asked each woman who sat for a portrait to write a personal essay about her experiences as she grew older.
The 'Feeling Our Age' exhibit will be on display at the Watermark Laguna Niguel senior living community through the end of June.
Cosgrove, 73, said the project was partially born from the coronavirus pandemic. The loneliness of that time meant something specific to her, as her maternal grandmother contracted the Spanish flu during World War I and suffered brain damage from it.
'She was locked away in an insane asylum in South Dakota and I never met her,' Cosgrove said. 'It's just so wrong. [The COVID-19 pandemic] triggered a lot of personal emotion in me.'
She found Watermark Laguna Niguel while looking for a place for a friend who had fallen and suffered a brain injury. Cosgrove ended up chatting with Troy Hollar, Watermark's national director of marketing and sales.
'We really had the same viewpoints about how people have been mistakenly treated, that ageism does exist, and how Watermark works to not only redefine the image of older people but to give them opportunity,' Cosgrove said. 'The portraits are one thing, and they're great, but each woman wrote a personal story about how it feels to be their age and what they aspire to at this point in their life. Those are all in their own words, and that, to me, is so inspiring. It just makes you feel good, and I hope it has inspired some of the people at Watermark as well.'
The World Health Organization projects that one in six people worldwide will be 60 or over by 2030. But studies have shown that older workers often are victims of ageism in the workplace.
The 'Feeling Our Age' collection is displayed throughout the property, said Sundeep Jeste, executive director of Watermark Laguna Niguel. It has sparked family members of residents, as well as members of the general public, to visit the property and check it out after an opening reception on May 15. Cosgrove also led abstract art workshops with residents.
'The pictures and the images really encapsulate the diversity of the community, what we strive for and what we're all about here,' Jeste said. 'Their stories are really a reflection of not only the residents living here, but also the team. It's really cool to see that come to light.'
Jeste added that he's talked with Cosgrove about having local artists have a sort of residency at the retirement community in the future.
Watermark and Cosgrove also put together, 'Feeling Our Age, Sixty Over Sixty,' a book featuring each of the portraits and essays.
Cosgrove said pulling together this collection of strong women has been life-changing for her. She feels the project resonates with the facility's residents because she herself is the same age, 'not some young whippersnapper,' she said.
'I was a little bit cranky about the personal isolation I was feeling [during the pandemic] and how I felt that older people were being treated,' she said. 'That was my response to what was going on, so I figured that if that's how I felt, other people must feel that way too.
'[The project] really made me shift my way of thinking and the way I approach my own life. I'm not quite so cranky anymore.'