"Portals" Lisa Porter Lawrence

"Portals" Lisa Porter Lawrence. Acrylic painted & found object assembled wood armoire. 61"H x 36"W x 22.5"D. 

“DreamPainted Furniture” is usually reclaimed from previous ownership, minimally restored, prepared to receive paint and then regarded by the artist as a blank canvas, ready to accept her new vision for it. Taking the rejected for the dream, the artist turns the found object into art, sometimes retaining its original function.

“Portals,” however, is a rare exception in that it was “found” in boxed pieces but not previously owned and not even assembled. The armoire holds a special place in the artist’s heart, as it bears tokens of important events and experiences in her life. Each panel or drawer  portrays a different memory, as if looking through a portal in time. For instance, Spider Rock Lookout at Canyon De Chelly, Arizona is painted in the lower left door panel.

There is a piano-hinged lift-up access panel in back. A hole in the panel accommodates wire passage from the interior to outside outlets for “technology.” The panel is equipped with two small magnets for closure.

I enjoy covering diverse surfaces from canvases and walls to furniture ("DreamPainted Furniture") with colorful, spiritually inspired imagery, whether designed to soothe or to motivate action. The process of discovery leads the creation of every work, even commissions with inclusion of specific requested information, as preconceived ideas are only starting points. One mark at a time, a blank surface is transformed into layers of colorful fields that describe something where nothing had been, even as      re-visioning and re-purposing old furniture into works of art also mimics life cycles and energetic investments, choices, made one upon another, determining eventual outcome, enhancing awareness whether foreseen or not.

3D elements are often but not always incorporated into the work.

Spending my earliest years overlooking the Ohio River from a clifftop home imprinted a sense of narrative in my psyche with the highly animated view of mysterious small islands and a constant passage of barges, boats and summertime water-skiers, as well as the occasional classic steamboat with its large paddle wheel. Even the rise and fall of the roller coaster cars between the trees across The River was about depth and perception, hide and seek, coupled with stories told by the passengers’ echoing cries, each screaming a different take on a common theme. It was life in a nutshell, a metaphor for all times.

My personal roller coaster took me with family to New Jersey, and I stayed on The East Coast through “schooling years,” receiving a B.A. with a Studio Concentrate from Goucher College, Maryland, followed by post graduate studies at The Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and spending six months with The Hoffberger Graduate School of Painting, MICA. I began exhibiting my work while in these study programs and continued into fully professional arenasimmediately thereafter. 

When an inexplicable longing for a desert climate was partnered with visions of the Southwest, I concluded my direct experience of the East Coast Art Scene with a show at Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimoreand headed west. In 1982, I arrived in Santa Fe, New Mexico with a truck and camping gear. New Mexico has been my home ever since, always supporting my spiritual inclinations and supplying never ending adventures and subject matter for artwork, consistent with the visionary theme of my earliest years.

Go to https://www.lisaporterlawrencellc.com for more examples and prices in all media: Painting, DreamPainted Furniture, Sculpture, Drawing and Archival Prints.

All rights belonging to the holder of the copyright, including the reproduction rights, shall remain with the Artist.

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