I like to allow my paintings to “happen” like a Freudian slip or a slip of the tongue.  In doing this I am able to tap into archetypal imagery, symbols and fragments of the psyche in a backdrop of landscapes that seem remote, haphazard and out of this world. Here, I playfully master the technique of catching the painting while it wasn’t looking.

Amongst the bizarre combinations of unanchored fragments a narrative emerges from the whole image, not insomuch as story telling but rather in its temperature, its speed, or in the emotion of the space it inhabits, for example a landscape appears as ‘hot’  ‘fast’ or ‘large’ or the sky as “nicotine stained walls”, the cityscapes as “edgy”.

Figures and symbols of the exotic recur and occupy the paintings as characters and objects of an archaeological, mythical or alchemical nature.  Their presence is able to stir a narrative curiosity yet they are often painted over and obscured suggesting that their part in the painting serves only as a host for the marks, drips and clumps of paint that make up their form.

The Day of the Dead and Mexican animal god head masks are images that I chose to focus on because of the ritualistic, exotic and naive elements in this type of art.  In doing this I also adopted the palette which is used in such styles of decorative art found in Mexico.  I merged these images with fragments of life including objects, doodles, geometric abstractions and mechanical remains.  

Lisa is an artist from New Zealand of Mexican decent.  She is a resident in the UK and is currently an artist in residence with Bow Arts live/work.