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This month’s Coffee Hound Featured Artist is Lisa Lofgren whose work will be on display at our Normal location through the end of August.

Having received a BFA from the University of Wyoming and an MFA from Illinois State University, with additional educational experiences abroad and through internships, Lisa primarily views herself as a printmaker, working “with different techniques of transferring imagery onto paper, most often through a press.”

As an artist, Lisa describes her style as an “abstract style [that] generally combines a modernist approach to color and shape, combined with an impressionist emotive influence of changing time and place.” As she “prepared for creating the works on display, [she] referenced many symbolists in her use of specific objects within the constructed space.”

With regard to the works currently on display in Normal, Lisa states, “I looked to explore a wide variety of content. The inspiration for each piece came from many points of reference, but each piece came from the common yet exceptionally strange emotional and physical response to bearing a child. The title for each work is ‘The Quickening’, which references the moment in time where baby flutters are felt and the baby is said to have life.” These works also implement a “versatile approach” and a “collage mentality with various clippings, photocopies, fabric, and paint.”

Upon viewing her work, Lisa hopes people “read the written information on each piece, grasp some of the references, understand the development of each work individually and in the larger story/context of the 16 pieces, and perhaps even the reference to printmaking as one matrix giving birth to many.” However, she would also be pleased if people simply took notice “and viewers connect[ed] with even one piece in some way be it color or that they like peaches.”

When asked about her inspirations, Lisa named “Hokusai, Botticelli, Whistler, Klimt, and Morandi”, but singled out Phyllis Bramson whose work she recently viewed at the Chicago Cultural Center.

In the past, Lisa’s work has been featured at the Joe McCauley Gallery at Heartland Community College, the Jan Brandt Gallery at the McLean County Arts Center, and the University Galleries. At present, in addition to the Coffee Hound, her work is also on view at cometogetherspace and Main Gallery 404, both in Downtown Bloomington.

Looking forward, Lisa is working on “applying for other exhibitions and playing with more collages (not to mention growing a baby inside [her] body).”

If you would like to learn more about Lisa and her work, please check out her blogspot page lisalofgren.blogspot.com.

Lisa Lofgren Coffee Hound