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"My work is essentially about a physical process… about transforming the act of painting into an act of building. On the surface there are deliberate relationships between forms and lines… but ultimately the work remains a kind of organized chaos… experimental, contradictory and open to interpretation by the viewer."
Irene Borngraeber "Lisa’s works consistently emphasize their materiality often seeming almost sculptural. Substantial, tactile, and rich—the circumstances of their making are registered upon them and are an integral part of their character and intrigue. They evolve both as matter, invention and thought… contemplative… resonant and demanding." Bruce McGraw
Steve Bollman STATEMENT For centuries people have been driven to express themselves thru marks. Builders etched their names in the tombs of ancient Egypt, hunters carved images in the caves of Lascaux, graffiti artists tag the walls of New York City. Marks are in effect recorded memories of a person, in a particular place, at a moment in time. They are a direct and physical way to visually communicate and express emotion and an extremely efficient method of conveying feelings, as little stands between the pen and the heart. As an artist I am interested in the irony between randomness and order as in making abstract marks and specifically organizing them. In this respect I function as both a painter and a sculptor. My foremost concern lies in creating surface images, however, I am especially interested in the relationships between form and line which I explore by treating individual paintings like building blocks and arranging them into 2D structures that interact with light. The evolution of my style came about by asking the question: “Could abstract fragments in themselves hold any merit outside the context of a single painting? This led to the treatment of fragments as finished works. I don’t paint to create a single composition, instead my intention is to create a collection of interrelating paintings or abstractions that function both separately and together as a form of...organized chaos. MEANING IN FORM One of the greatest ironies any artist soon discovers is the conflicting nature of the creative mind. Too many options in any respect often lead to excess, followed by boredom, followed by apathy. I find it necessary, in this regard, to impose controls on my work. The pallet, the materials and the final architectural configuration all function to define my parameters. The meaning of my work lies within its process, which is action oriented and experimental. While similar in theory no two works in any series are exactly alike. Sculptress Louise Nevelson once wrote: "The Architect of Shadow... You see shadow and everything else on earth actually is moving. Movement – that’s in color, that’s in form, that’s in almost everything. Shadow is fleeting... and I arrest it and I give it a solid substance.” — Dawns & Dusks by Diana MacKown, 1976, p.127 There is an architecture to shadows revealed in Nevelson's statement that should not be ignored. I strive to expose this element by using shadow to create form in a collection of paintings that hang as an installation. The work hangs in a balance between painting and sculpture simultaneously addressing: surface, space, light and form. This involves dissecting the surface plane to reveal shadows in the negative space. Shadows are malleable and kinetic and capable of literal movement. Rather than “arrest" a shadow” I seek to free it. SERIES DEFINED: I work within a number of distinct "Series". INK: The ink group deals primarily with diaphanous marks, monochromatic color ranges and dynamic, circular movements. The gestures and hues within each particular ink series are inspired by the forces of nature. A menagerie of visual data relating to biology, geology, and other natural phenomena flows as a stream of consciousness and is expressed as moving lines suspended in time on the surface of each image. BLACK & WHITE: This series is graphic, acrylic, minimal and explosive. It differs from the ink work in that it is inspired by music, film and dance. It's about capturing the action of a single gesture. It's abstraction in its purest form, spontaneous and rebellious and yet the armature for this work is disciplined and controlled. It is deconstruction and reconstruction. AMORPHIC PODS This is the most recent series inspired by fragmented rock forms and micro-biology. The architectural framework differs from my earlier work in that it has no defined boundaries. Each installation is pieced together in a fluid, organic manner, some resembling microscopic cellular structures or chemical chains, others appear like collection of random fragments of stone. The final unique compositions within each body of work remain contradictory and experimental. This is what allows each series to continue on as an investigation...and a self-perpetuating act of compulsive mark making.
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