On the 5th anniversary of the day that changed all our lives, I want to know how the events of 9/11 have affected your art career, art business, and direction of your artwork.
If you have created a work in memoriam, I would like for you to leave a link to that.
Speaking from experience, I know that the very best art doesn’t always come from tragedy. But I also know it’s something artists just have to do: comment, explore emotions, connect.
How about you?
Share this post
Make time at the end of the year to reflect on your experiences, accomplishments, and milestones from 2024—before you plan for 2025.
The Artist’s
ANNUAL REVIEW 2024
FREE PDF with opt-in
You’ll receive:
Sent every week or two. Includes new articles, available programs, and episodes of The Art Biz podcast.
Reflect on the past year so you can plan for 2025. Get The Artist’s Annual Review 2024* PDF. Free with opt in.
4 life areas, 57 total prompts
*This review is a PDF written for the end of the year, but you can take stock anytime. You will also receive updates about new podcasts, blog posts, and programs. You can opt out at any time.
14 thoughts on “How Artists Remember 9/11”
Two weeks after 9/11, I had to show at an art fair,it was the last thing I wanted to do feeling the way I did. As I watched the first few somber people wander into my booth, I was amazed to suddenly see smiles on their faces – it was the moment when I made peace with making ‘happy art’ and realized how transformative it can be, much like music. If you click on my name, I have included is a link to the painting I created in memorial on September 11 of 2002. http://AnnesArt.com
I wanted to do something other than listen and watch others talk about 9-11. So, on my daily blog I painted a memorial and gave my own tribute. Feel free to visit. I will not sell the painting though, I don’t feel I should gain from the loss of so many. Thank you for posting this and reminding us all how linked we really are.
In the five years since the towers fell I have not made a specific piece about the event. The World Trade Center was my old neighborhood; my children learned to walk in the plaza, and played in the fountain. Since 9/11 I am committed to making art that is healing and peace making for me and for others. One reason I make art about love not war.
It took a couple of years before I could make the piece. Click on my name for a look at the piece. I’m primarily a jewelry artist, but turned to assemblage for this memorial.
password to enter this homepage is: florart Painting #1 was painted on Saturday, Sept.8, 2001 It was intuitively painted, I still keep on asking myself…why the Red…why and why…this painting is about the bloody human minds.
I have not created a piece about 9/11, it can take me years to process the emotions and feelings about an event like this in order to paint about it. I chose to commemorate 9/11 this year by using my art to help others in need, and so I am auctioning off 2 paintings on e-bay to benefit the New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund.
THANKS Alyson for letting us share. I live in New York City. 5 years ago I saw the World Trade Towers go down from my rooftop. This is not an easy day/week or anytime I think about it, for me. Today I wanted to post something that was beautiful and hopeful today, so voilà.
Today, I wrote an essay that comments about 9-11, and the efforts of quilters and others to apply their creativity as a way to heal the pain of others. There is only one photograph in the file and it is of a quilt that was made to honor the heroes of Flight 93 who died in a field in Pennsylvania when their plane crashed. Don Beld’s magnificent quilt has been collected by a new museum, as explained in the article which you can access here: http://www.quiltersmuse.com/fifth_anniversary_of_sept_11.htm Best wishes to all, on this very sad day of remembrance. Patricia Cummings, fiber artist and writer
On 9/11/2001 I was working as a Financial Systems Analyst at a college in Mass. Naturally, many students and employees were directly affected by what took place on this day. With the realization of how fragile our lives are and always having the dream to be an artist, I pushed myself harder to make that dream a reality. This past summer I was lucky enough to paint full time and discover myself and my techniques as a painter. I created “Fragile – Tribute to 9/11” as a remembrance of how fragile but hopeful we all are.
I remember logging onto my computer before work & seeing the yahoo news alerts about the Twin towers having 1 airplane crash into them. I though, hoped it was a cruel hacker prank & turned on the news on the tv. I was watching the news live as the 2nd tower was crashed into. This painting I sent the link for was in progress before 9/11. At that time liberty was happy and planning on having flowers swirling around her head. After 9/11 had to put her away and 6 months later she is nearly expressionless, the flowers turned to smoke, her smile to a dejected pout.
As a student at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY in 1971, the desk in my dorm room sat facing the East River and lower Manhattan. Every day I watched the cranes lift the twin towers of the new WTC steadily upward. It was exciting to watch and,of course, I never imagined it’s ultimate destiny. Oddly enough, the painting in this link was begun on the 3rd of September 2001. It was intended to capture the haziness of spent jet fuel below an ascending airplane. My son had just flown out to Canada for school that day and I was feeling sad. I finished the painting on the 12th. What rose to the surface was very different from my original intention. It was as though the painting had taken charge and let me come along for the ride. “As on the Wings of a Dove” is dedicated to all those souls who lost their lives on that day, all those people whose hearts and lives were broken and the many rescuers who showed us unparalleled courage.
The grief I feel about 9/11 isn’t just for the lives that were lost that day. It’s for the way the world has changed. I wonder what all our work and all our careers would look like if 9/11 had never happened.
I sat here watching the destruction of the towers and the people in them and my hands would not stop sketching. At then end of the day I looked at my papers and realized that I had created a sketch that would lead to creating a monument that would be viewed in the midwest from airplanes flying coast to coast. My monument would involve scaring the land of the great plains in the immage of the twin towers which could be veiwed from the airplanes. I feel that since the planes caused the attacks it is fiting that the memorial be viewed from the air like old Indian mounds drawings in North and South America. At one end of the blackened immage I designed an “american Stonehenge” using images of the broken buildings which would be accessible to foot visitors. The visiting center would lead into the ground where the names of all of the people killed on 911 were listed and memorialized. I have not been able to complete this vision as I do not have the capital or the name to be able to pull it off. If anyone is interested in partnering with me to pursue this I would intertain an inquiry.
Do you have any suggestions on where I can send a 3’x3′ oil painting commemorating 9/11? I inherited it from a recently deceased artist since I was the only person he knew with a direct connection to a 9/11 victim. I feel it doesn’t belong in my home – that there must be someplace that could display it tastefully. Ideas?