About

Artist Statement

Our lifestyles are becoming more and more digitally oriented and sedentary. We are very cerebral creatures, especially in comparison to other animals. We think about thinking and how the mind works. Yet, we would not be ourselves without our bodies, or senses. Being human is wondrous, amazing, and weird. Fully realizing that sense of wonder requires the integration of our mental and physical perspectives. As a child, I did this by covering my feet in mud, and exploring my neighborhood until the “shoes” wore off. Part of the thrill was seeing how far I could go and what I could discover on the way. I love how neuroscience writer Jonah Lehrer expresses this concept: “The self emerges via the act of attention. We bind together our sensory parts by experiencing them from a particular point of view.”

Finding wonder in the world, and the essence of our humanness, involves more than thinking, computing, and our digital interfaces. That discovery involves taking in the world around us with our highly developed senses. It is this blending of intellectual and corporeal experiences that informs my artwork. I no longer use mud shoes to wander through the world, but prefer investigating these ideas through my artwork. This manifests thematically, whether in paintings incorporating surreal images drawn from dreams, a sophisticated wax or glazed surface intended to seduce the viewer, or a piece of pottery designed to feel good in the hands and function well (or some combination of those elements).

Biography

Lisa moved to Colorado’s Roaring Fork valley in 2010 to participate in the artist-in-residence program at the Carbondale Clay Center, and set up her studio at S.A.W. (Studio for Arts and Works). This is where she makes functional pottery, encaustic paintings, and other mixed media work.

Lisa has been teaching ceramics at the Colorado Mountain College campus in Aspen since 2015, and also periodically teaches other art classes such as drawing or metal-clay. She teaches at the Carbondale Clay Center on a rotating basis. Lisa earned her MFA at San Diego State University, BFA at the University of Wisconsin in River Falls, and AA at Front Range Community College in Westminster, Colorado. Lisa’s recent solo exhibitions have been at the ArtShare Gallery in Glenwood Springs, and at Franklin College in Indiana. Her work combines interests in science, craft, and art and can be found regularly at the Carbondale Arts shop known as the Artique in the Launchpad, the Carbondale Clay Center sales gallery, or at S.A.W.