Art, Grief, and Becoming with Lanecia Rouse

In this episode of Curiously, Ericka sits with Lanecia Rouse for a beautiful conversation about art, faith, grief, and living with wonder. Together, they explore Lanecia’s journey as an artist and how beauty, memory, and loss shape the work we make and the lives we live. Lanecia reflects on growing up in the church, how her faith has evolved over time, and what it looks like to embrace uncertainty instead of chasing certainty. Along the way, they talk about creativity as a spiritual practice, paying attention to what is unfolding within us, and finding deeper meaning through art, community, and everyday moments of beauty.   Show Notes Bio: Lanecia A. Rouse, is an artist based between Richmond, Virginia, and Houston, Texas, whose multifaceted practice encompasses collage, abstract painting, photography, and curatorial work with non-profit organizations.  Her practice lives at the intersection of art and spirituality, drawn to the questions that surface when image-making is understood as a contemplative act.  Rooted in an ongoing curiosity about history — personal, inherited, and collective — her work turns toward ancestral memory, matrilineal knowledge, and the remnants of lived experience as primary material.  She approaches art as a space to notice, to gather and to reconsider the narratives that shape us and the ones we choose to carry forward.  Through collage, she re-contextualizes photographs, family archival materials, found objects, and abstracted language.  Language operates in her work as both mark-making and verse, contributing to the visual and conceptual layering of each work. Rouse has participated in residencies at the Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts, Charleston, SC (2023); Asia Society HTX, Houston, TX (2022); Rice University's Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (2020–2021); and served as the Inaugural Berg Global Artist-in-Residence Fellow at Vanderbilt University (2025). She has shared her practice through workshops at SnowFarm New England Craft School, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Shakerag Workshops, and The Glen Workshop. Rouse serves as Artist-in-Residence partner at Holy Family HTX Episcopal Church, where she guides the curation team for the Lanecia A. Rouse Gallery, and sits on the Board of Directors for Image Journal and 1708 Gallery in Richmond, VA. She is a graduate of Wofford College and Duke University Divinity School.   https://www.theoed.com/laneciarouse http://www.laneciarouse.co/