Lisa Kemp

Artist
Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat (Toronto, ON, Canada)

Summer Wildflowers, Digital Collage, 20” x 16”, 2022, NFS
Mother Earth, Digital Collage, 20” x 16”, 2022, NFS
Winter Mortality, Digital Collage, 16” x 20”, 2022, NFS

Artist Statement:

Mother Earth Collage Series

The Mother Earth digital collage series is inspired by the mythology of nature goddesses. My muse is Mother Earth who controls the lifecycle of the natural world and watches over it with a mixture of benevolence and cruelty.

Collage 1 - Mother Earth

The Mother Earth digital collage forms the centre of the story and is inspired by my muse being a goddess who uses the seasons to control the lifecycle of the natural world. She takes the world from the fragile warmth and hope of spring, through the wild exuberance of summer, to the cozy comforts of autumn, and the cold contemplation of winter. This brings balance to a complicated, messy world and helps it to grow and evolve.

The Mother Earth collage was inspired by a photograph of my great-grandmother and the way my garden changes over the seasons. I love the contemplative look on her face, as if she’s remembering times of both sadness and happiness. Mother Earth’s face is made of photographs of leaves and her body from plants to symbolize her deep connection to the natural world that she controls. Her hair is a spring garden and the tree in the background has just lost its leaves in the fall. Her dress is made of summer flowers and the bare branches of a winter tree represent the shadows and folds of fabric.

Collage 2 - Summer Wildflowers

The Summer Wildflowers digital collage captures the joyous, colourful movement caused by wind blowing through a wildflower meadow and was inspired by a perfect summer’s day. The sky is a beautiful blue with a few fluffy white clouds slowly drifting past. The sun warms the world and a breeze moves the grasses and flowers creating a dancing mosaic of colour and texture. Mother Earth is in a warm, happy mood and all is right with the world. The background of the collage consists of strips of photographs of flower gardens and the foreground uses cutout of photographs of flowers and grasses, angled to represent the movement of the wind.

Collage 3 - Winter Mortality

The Winter Mortality digital collage is inspired by the cold darkness of the final season as the world slips into a much needed rest. Mother Earth sends the natural world into a time of regeneration; of slow processes quietly continuing under a blanket of ice and snow. She creates a time of contemplation and meditation, of problems faced and solved, of solutions found and accepted. It’s not an end, but rather a pause for a rest and a time to regroup and prepare for the seasons to come. The collage was inspired by an X-ray of a torso and head. The image resembles a fragile ghost, contrasting with the inherent strength of the bones it portrays. The bones in the spine were sculpted from clay and then underglazed. They represent the strength of the skeleton and its importance in surviving tough situations. The heart was also sculpted from clay and then underglazed. It represents the emotional strength and resilience needed to survive and the love that makes that process so much easier. The dead flowers represent Mother Nature’s sending the natural world into winter hibernation and the living vine symbolizes the anticipation of spring. The rose represents the natural world’s  lifecycle as it fades from the glorious colours of summer to the fragile beauty of winter.

Bio:

Lisa has worked as a mechanical drafter, technical writer, and multimedia artist (fibre art, collage and sculpture). Her career was cut short by serious illness and she had to rebuild and learn how to live the more restricted life of disability. She used her experience and training as an artist to learn new ways to create her 2d and 3d artwork. When the pandemic started, she started experimenting with digital collage and has enjoyed some success, with her work appearing in gallery shows and a magazine.

Lisa enjoys experimenting with combining different artistic methods and using traditional techniques in non-traditional materials. Such as crocheting in wire or using basketry techniques in clay or collage. Her artwork can be 2d or 3d and uses combinations of fibre, collage, photography, painting and drawing. Her digital collages are inspired by her love of plants and nature, photography and story-telling. She uses a lot of colour and texture and explores the interactions of light and shadow on surfaces. Her hope is that viewers will find joy, happiness, and warmth in her thoughtful, story-filled work.

Lisa’s muse is the natural world, especially the beauty in the shapes and structures of plants as they cycle from seeds to plants to the dried forms of winter. Part of what inspires her is the contradiction between the apparent fragility of the surface with the strength that lies beneath, be it from a skeleton’s structure or the emotional strength that comes from surviving traumatic events. She likes taking a leap into the unknown when she works and relying on her instincts and training to help her to create. Depending on the inspiration, her artwork can be abstract, realistic or both.

Open Studio has given Lisa a sense of community during the isolation of the pandemic. It’s a friendly, warm, supportive group, full of lively discussions on art and everyday life. It’s been a helpful place to get creative feedback and to find encouragement when struggling to find focus or finish a piece.

Contact: Instagram: @lmk_collage