We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lisa Anita Wegner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lisa Anita below.

Lisa Anita, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

As a young child, I was always organizing and performing in plays. At age eight, I went into my school principal’s office and proposed using the auditorium for a play I had in mind. After the performance, a teacher – who knew that I’d organized the whole thing as well as performing – remarked to me that I should just keep doing what I was doing, and eventually someone would pay me to do it. Even at such a young age, this resonated with me and felt right. It wasn’t until later that I realized that – since I had cast the show, made the costumes, prepared backing tapes, and handled all other logistics – I was naturally a producer even then, and could use my abilities there to further my opportunities for performance.

Lisa Anita, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am an artist, performer, filmmaker, and the creative director of Mighty Brave Productions, through which I’ve completed over 200 full-scale art projects. After studying theatre at York University, I acted in film, theatre, and television projects and ran two self-owned film production companies before I began to explore visual art and performance. It was when I discovered my passion for creating universes and alternate personae that I believe that I truly began my artistic career. My professional art practice began with experiments in post-production photography and grew to encompass film, video, and live performance, focusing on the use of artifice as a means of exploring the truth.

Drawing on my personal history, I set about creating artistic realities that run parallel to and sometimes counter to the traditionally accepted reality, in a process I’ve dubbed Realistic Confabulation. With heavy Dada influences and strong, theatrical Expressionism recalling Weimar-era Berlin, I developed my art practice into a cohesive, immersive experience for my audience, featuring outsize comic and tragic elements..

My works range from films to performance-based installations, along with photo and video works that emerge as artifacts of my universes. My most recent project, Intangible Adorations, is featured in the National Arts Centre’s 2023 book, Material For Creation. My five-year commitment to this large-scale multi-sensory art project has brought me a deeper connection with my audience and peers who’ve entered my worlds that I invite you to explore.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I want to create unworldly moments with my universes, for both myself and my audience, to offer an extraordinary experience that feels as though time has been suspended. I want my art to establish a deep, profound connection with those who join me in my universes.

This has extended to the set-up of my home & studio, which I’ve set up to create an environment of sensory stimulation for myself and visitors that will take them out of the mundane.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

My early experiences as a professional producer and actor led me to a path of thinking in terms of everything has to go faster, with a high output and a constant mind to economy.

When I was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome in 2018, however, I really needed to take things slowly; and this led me to a revelation that art can be created in a different way that is just as valid, and much more enjoyable for everyone on the team.

I have had to learn to really pace myself, and take necessary breaks, dividing any project into ‘chapters.’ What has been very gratifying is finding that others I’ve recruited to various projects have also really taken to my methods, and found them to be very beneficial. Now, when I consult for others on their projects, I always recommend these alternative ways of working, no matter their capacity.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mightybraveproductions.ca
• Instagram: @lisanitawegner
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisaanitawegner/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisaanitawegner/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/lisaanitawegner
• Linktree: https://linktr.ee/lisaanitawegner

Image Credits
All images by Lisa Anita Wegner except: behind the scenes Queen of the Parade 2013 by Carl Elster Early Portals at Bell Jar Cafe by Marshall Dragun Queen of the Parade Nuit Blanche 2013 by Veronika Hurnik