ARTIST STATEMENT
My current research looks at geologic formations through rock displacement (erratics), rock extraction, and the movement of rocks by humans (manuports). In an effort to find home in Illinois when I often long for family and the landscape of Wyoming, I research connections between Illinois and Wyoming through geologic time. Rocks become a metaphor to talk about ancestry, spirituality, the impact of a changing climate, and displacement. Explorations in collage use prints started years ago that find resolve in entirely different ways than I would have discovered then. I am in conversation with these old paper friends, unified by my present voice and embracing intuitive play. I invite my daughter into the studio; we create odd constructions on walks and around the neighborhood.
I watch her manipulate materials with few or no intentions. I embrace these whims of playing with a variety of mediums and experiences that often make their way into the studio. These modes of making are slower and more impromptu, often leading to larger insights, and are now part of my practice. I look to highlight instances of discovery and moments of understanding through visual abstractions giving sensitivity to the meaning intrinsic to the materials. The resulting works are translations of landscape, organic and inorganic textures, current research, and diagrams that reveal a presence of something more, an accumulation of knowledge. I am drawn to how the past reveals itself to us in both extraordinary and subtle ways to connect us with the here and now.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Lisa Lofgren (she/her) is an artist and educator fostering creativity and diversity in the arts as founder of Together Press, a community printmaking and papermaking facility in coordination with cometogetherspace in Bloomington, Illinois. She graduated from the University of Wyoming with a BFA and an MFA from Illinois State University, where she has served as Registrar and Office Coordinator since 2018. Her work has been collected locally and internationally including private collections with family, friends, acquaintances, and institutions in Wyoming, Illinois, and Minnesota.
© Lisa Lofgren