We were lucky to catch up with Lisa Goren recently and have shared our conversation below.
Lisa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
I think that I’m constantly taking risks in that I’m willing to try things I haven’t done before. I graduated from college with a degree in European Studies having never taken an art course (with the exception of Art History). As I started painting, I took many adult education courses to help make me a better painter. One of my teachers said that I needed to work on my drawing skills.
Boston University has a program for seniors (55+) where we can take most classes as auditers. No credit given but you’re essentially a full member of the class. I decided to take a college level drawing class which was a big leap for me and I was sure I wouldn’t be able to keep up.
It was a life-changing experience as the teacher and students couldn’t have been more welcoming and encouraging. Since then, I have tried to take as many classes as I can with the goal of auditing all of the classes needed for a BFA.
Lisa, we 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 a witness. Ever since I was a teenager, I knew that I wanted to travel to the Polar Regions. Twenty-seven years ago, I was able to fulfill a lifelong dream by going to Antarctica. At the time, I was still working full time in Boston in the music business and put all of my vacation together so that I could travel so far away. My girlfriends knew I wanted to paint the landscape (especially the ice) and bought me a small watercolor kit. And so an artist was born….
Since that trip, I have travelled to Iceland (multiple times), Alaska, and the High Arctic (near the North Pole). All Polar and frozen landscapes are dominated by an absence that is in stark contrast to the lush landscapes of the rest of the planet. Without the “noise” of animals, people, and plants, the landscape reveals itself as an abstraction of shapes and colors. Every watercolor I paint is an exploration of the absence and the clarity created in these frozen worlds.
As a watercolorist, I work with the transitory nature of water. Of course ice melts, but some of my subjects include ice that is thousands of years old. In all of my paintings the background noise of global warming is present, making even superstructures vulnerable. The balance of fragility and strength of frozen worlds mirrors the balance between water and ice.
Like everyone else during the Pandemic, I was unable to travel. During the lockdown, we started to see images of animals taking over the places that humans had abandoned. Known as the “Anthropause,” animals moved quickly into “our” worlds. These photos from around the world captivated me and I created a new series of paintings which are drawn from the animals’ resilience, as they comfortably reestablished themselves in “our” spaces.
Next year, I am honored to have been chose for a 2-week residency the La Porte Peinte in Noyers, France. I intend to move more towards the abstract, linking vibrant colors to viral images of migrants, fires, and other world events that have impacted all of us.
“In Hot Pursuit of the Cold and Ice” – my full-page article about my residency in the High Arctic, was published in the New York Times (http://nyti.ms/1PAO5mr). My Google talk is available on YouTube (http://bit.ly/lisagorengoogle).
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I remain drawn to the colder parts of the planet and I’m working to get to Greenland. I’ve created paintings based on my flights over that large land/ice mass but I very much want to see it in person.
It’s important to me to bring these places back to those who would not get to see them.
I’m a firm believer that the more you can help create a connection to our planet, the more you can get people to feel they have a stake in it. In addition, I think people are moved by beauty which is why I work to portray the majesty and beauty of the ice.
When I went to Antarctica, very few people were talking about climate change. A couple of the guides on my trip said that they felt the icebergs didn’t seem to last as long. But it wasn’t something that seemed like a global issue. Perhaps they were still thinking about weather as opposed to climate.
Worldwide interest in the Poles and Polar ice found me already there. It’s not that I was ahead of the scientists, just that this was the area I was already interested in. So, Greenland is next!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Having painted and shown my work for 20+ years, you’d think that I was pretty confident that I knew my audience, chose to enter shows that highlighted my strengths, etc. But these past few years have thrown a wrench in my understanding. I have a background in retail and business so I know how hard presenting and selling works can be.
This year, I really struggled to figure out where I belonged within the art world. I decided to try and do every show that made even a little bit of sense for my work. I did Open Studios, Outdoor Art Fairs, PopUp Art Events, Indoor Art Fairs, and more. A significant part of the summer was spent doing outdoor events and I learned about how to do many shows in the wind and rain. Even so, sales continued to confound me – rainy days might be the best day of a weekend or there would be no sales during the rain. It’s hard to learn (and keep your spirits up) from such conflicting and unexplained circumstances.
Still, I do feel that the work I put in this summer has really led me to some conclusions about where I should focus my efforts and where I should not participate. I’m still working through this with three more shows this year that should help me understand how best to show my work.
But it took a lot of commitment and tough days to get here.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lisagorenpaintings.com
- Instagram: @lisafgoren
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.goren/
- Other: linktr.ee/Lisagoren
Image Credits
All paintings by Lisa Goren.