Lisa Alley

Lives and works in Austin, TX, USA

Artist statement

When I paint, reality changes - time extends and flashes by in an instant, ideas surrounding expectations, values, norms and dramas become inconsequential. It is a meditation and a practice in dissolving unconscious societal influences. I am purposefully playful in my abstract work, using a myriad of tools and mediums to experiment with movement, color and assumptions. I affix braids of thread, accent explosive brushstrokes with impasto mediums, tip the canvas to create drip lines, or cover with resin to create a mirror-like surface where I can see myself literally reflected. I push to surprise, to extend my lines outside the predetermined confines. My abstracts are for bucking constraints of societal norms and personal criticisms, shown in charcoal grids that are openly disregarded, in bright, optimistic palettes, with novel materials like tassels and yarn looped throughout. In figurative pieces, I address themes around the fallacy of expectations and exposing fault lines. In my current series, the bathtub is the point of departure to discuss women & female identifying persons’ treatment in modern society. The tub becomes symbolic of a burial, its shape representative of a coffin, a connotation of submersion, drowning. The bathtub is also a place of refuge. It’s where femininity loses its performative aspect. It’s self indulgence, self care, self acknowledgement. Alone time. The bold nudity and eye contact of the subjects confronts a tradition of women primarily...

Artwork