Metamorphosis of Painting-B

My painting took another shower yesterday. Is it done?? 

Absolutely!!

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Metamorphosis is for sale

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Size: 36" x 40" Depth 2 3/4

Price $4000

Metamorphosis of Painting-A

Of course it always starts with a blank canvas, then a lot automatic painting-reflection- a shower or two. Then I destroy it, then I create, and then destroy. Reflect-react intuitively-This painting is still in the works.  It kind of nags at me to change it all the time.

Paintings for Sale

Lisa poured out The Thin Places for all to see. And in her hand the bending spree, in wistful, flowing, calming traumic interface, the witness be. Thinness of distinction. Thinness of discrepancy. The space between, the space unseen, the space where the twilight and the knowing sheen, find in each other the harmonic mean.

Spices emanating upward from the nestled mandala-savory-space, lubricating the nostrils with memories chased from deeper places sight unseen. Light and scent (!), we enter the scene, diving in towards the hidden seam. Paintings cast in measured care, with wildness constrained by just the bare mounts in the frames ringing evenly the room, holding in each a lingering tune, of the place where spirit and thisness meet.

A lozenge for the eyes and mind. Symmetries nestled in fun-filled calling mysteries bind. Pneuma. Anasazi. Darknesses, incomplete, faint, whistling memories that you barely taste again. The deeper reaches of the mind, trickling away in kind. Lingering whispers haunting so, bartered through the colors claimed in Ka and Bardo, the journey from each piece to another bringing with it a glancing blow. A living, feeling, beautiful, explosion inward away from the evening glow.

Linearity in Lil, shocking still, organized and regal. Containment stressed on that thinness undressed thoroughly saturating the acrylic finesse of boundary and order on yet another sinking beckoning regress. Moving me back and out and around, to touch and caress, the space, the place, my girl’s soft press. The art, for me, is a seeping, see, from hand and thought outward, and in to me. The expressions from you are a simple plea, for a return, a dance, some part of me.

Art that inspires, art that plants a seed, art that pushes and bleeds.
-Cameron Thrash

Transformation

24" x 36"

$1300

KA (SOLD)

Thin Places

36" x 36"

2 1/2" Deep Canvas

$2000

“A thin place,” “is a place where the boundary between heaven and earth is especially thin. It’s a place where we can sense the divine more readily."

Prana

24" x 36"

2 1/2 Deep Canvas

$1500

Prana means

Energy, Breath, Life force

Wabi Sabi (SOLD)

Wu Wei

24" x 36'

$1300

A key principle in realizing our oneness with the Tao is that of wu-wei, or "non-doing." Wu-wei refers to behavior that arises from a sense of oneself as connected to others and to one's environment. It is not motivated by a sense of separateness. It is action that is spontaneous and effortless. At the same time it is not to be considered inertia, laziness, or mere passivity. Rather, it is the experience of going with the grain or swimming with the current. Our contemporary expression, "going with the flow," is a direct expression of this fundamental Taoist principle, which in its most basic form refers to behavior occurring in response to the flow of the Tao

Griffen

24' x 36"

$1500

I exhibited this one at the LA art walk. I had several comments saying that it was the best piece that they had seen the whole evening

E-mail me at lisarasmussen08@gmail. com for inquiries.

Image of the Day: It is time to let go...

Letting Go
Mixed Media
4"x 5"

Transformation: Alchemy Series
Pretty much all my Art is about transformation, but this is from a series that I did art around the science of Alchemy, and my own personal transformation. I was courageously confronting/addressing one of my personal demons through art. It was formalized in an amazing class taught by Mary Webster that I took at JFK in Arts and Consciousness during my M.F.A. program. I grew substantial in my own Art and within myself during that quarter. The art that I created is a marker of my experience.
The piece is a mixed media piece with acrylic paint, dead leaves, and the figure I got in Caba San Lucas Mexico,from a vendor on the street, who was selling the amazing and potent art of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). She did sadly say that this art form was dying, because of the youth were traveling to the cities and buying into American Culture. I combined each medium to create a composition that honored my internal demon and my ancestors. As I now know "it" has been passed unconsiously down from generation to generation.

For me during that powerful class I think I manifested my stuff that I wanted to heal via art, but I do not think I ever let go of my personal demon and today it is time to let go. After over four years of intensive Jungian Therapy.....

I am transforming my WV- I, you , me, and you again are so brave and courageous to be in this world. We all have brave hearts. Now it is time to take care of our Mama EARTH and THE amazing beings the exist with in. And so it is...

Here is good resource if you wish research and engage in Alchemy. Alchemy
& The Philosopher's Stone or take the class with Mary Webster at JFK in Berkeley it will change your life and you ART!!

The Genesis of this series-2007

The first shrine that I had created was part of my neighborhood mapping practice for a class called Artist in Society that I was taking in my Graduate program at JFKU in Berkeley. Its premise was to look at our relationship with Nature and how does it integrate or not into our art and process. The most powerful being in my neighborhood is the majestic redwood that resides outside my front door. During my morning ritual, which includes lots of coffee and lots of staring, I always open the door and gaze up at the giant and greet him with great admiration, over the years I have named him grandfather. Also at the summer and winter solstices I celebrate his presence by burning incense and candles at the base of his truck. To me this amazing tree embodies strength and divinity.
This project has given me an opportunity to do art for the tree. Normally, he is a witness in my creative process and in this realm I feel he become an active participant.
It began with a trip to my favorite Indian store called the Indian Bizarre in Berkeley. Where I bought and array of spices and Puja powder, which is a vibrant red pigment used in traditional Hindi rituals.
As I opened the gate and walked down the path into my yard, I gasped in sadness as I saw a brilliant yellow and red bird lying dead in my path. I looked around for my three felines kids, to see if anyone was guilty. I immediately buried the bird with honor, but as I started creating the shrine I wanted to resurrect it. Was it a sacrifice?
I started creating the solar shrine, by circling the base of grandfather’s truck with the spices and pigments. I then created a series of concentric circles around the base of the tree. The pigments I intuitively placed creating a vibration between the contrasting hues. In a smaller concentric circle I embedded two power objects in the earth from various parts of world that I have been to--- a rock from the Irish Sea and a crystal that I received from a Shaman in Peru. At twilight I lit candles and placed at the four directions in the smaller circle. Lastly, at this time I documented the earthwork with photography.

Something weird began happening while I creating the shrine, honeybees had started dive-bombing into the assemblage and dying. In the morning the bees had gone crazy and were swarming in giant spiral in my yard. Instinctively I knew to dismantle the shrine immediately. Shortly, after that the bees went back to normal. It seemed from their response that I had evoked something while creating the shrine. Unfortunately, it seemed disharmonious. Was it the bird?
I destroyed the work like a Tibetan sand painting, leaving only in the earth the stone and crystal. Within the process of mapping my neighborhood I have seen in the garden a luminous blue dragonfly continuously landing on the stone. For me it symbolizes the shrine is still active.

WHAT IS THIS WORK ALL ABOUT

Site Specific- Earth Works

“ I stumbled upon a sacred moment. My nephew and I went walking on a wooded trail near our home. He is twelve years old and loves the woods. We are glad to be close. But even in the woods we were distracted. Thinking of other things, not particularly present with each other or where we were. We stumbled upon the shrine at Cascade Falls, and it awoke something inside us. What is this? We wondered. Look at these colors…around this beautiful tree, and resonant energy ... this is where people have gathered to honor this place. And so we finally entered into a place where we were, and arrived, home at the falls.”
Bennett Johnston


My earthworks are collaborative installations that pay homage to trees in and around the Bay Area that emanate power or have an absence of it. It began as a practice to rekindle my ancient relationship with trees. Evidence of human kind’s interconnection with trees traces back well over 6,ooo years. Humanity once had a deep spiritual relationship with trees. Indeed, the precursor to our dominant patriarchal religions was the tree.
My work is a cross culture phenomenon inspired by the Kalaptura tree (wishing tree) of India and by various ancient and indigenous cultures around the globe that worshipped trees. While creating these works metaphysically, I activate my belief in animism ---- the shamanistic worldview that bodies in nature have souls and consciousness.


Thus far I have created eleven earthworks, five being solar and six being lunar. The solar or circle shrines symbolize the archetype of the masculine. The crescent or lunar shrines symbolize the archetype of the feminine and must be created near a water source. I employ these two energies through the intuitive action of creating concentric circles around the trunk of a tree with pigments, spices, and food from Asia, India, and South America. The inner rings of the tree seem to exteriorize and vibrate with energy through the vibrant and contrasting colors of the pigments. After each work is complete I meditate with the tree and document my experience.
An important aspect of this project is the witnessing and of the interaction of the work by another to activate its potential for the witness to remember something they have forgotten. My intention is for my shrines to evoke introspection and a sense of the sacred for those who stumble upon them in a forest or in a city.



One of my latest tree shrines was a solar shrine created at Lincoln Child Center, a mental health agency for abused children where I teach transformative art. It was a collaborative project with my students. The tree we chose was a neglected olive tree located on a small island of dirt surrounded by cement. We poured the pigments and contrasting hues to activate the solar energy in the concentric circles. Then we tore Sari cloth and ribbons and asked all the children to make wishes as they tied the ribbons to the tree. The children intuitively asked permission from the tree. One child wished for world peace. Another wished to go home. A third wished he would not be restrained anymore. The wind blew through the tree with the simplicity and majesty of Tibetan prayer flags, carrying my students’ wishes away.


My earthworks are expanding internationally. I have decided to create shrines around the globe. In March of 2008, I went to Copper Canyon in Mexico and I created a shrine in around a tree located in a place called “the valley of frogs.” From afar, I noticed several people looking at the shrine with curiosity. I hope my shrines will help build awareness of our spiritual connection with the environment, and that they will help foster reverence for all life.