Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Horlander.
Hi Lisa, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
After college, I was fortunate enough to be accepted into a Summer Art Residency at New York University. This experience shaped my need for a strong art community as well as taught me what I needed to do to make it as an artist. I started exhibiting my work throughout Texas. I found the artist community I craved in Dallas at the Cedars Union and was accepted as one of their Cohort 2 studio artists. I am still a community member with them today. This year I opened up my own shared Art Studio and Micro-Gallery, In-between Studio. I offer art classes and events, open studio events with my studio mate Jessica Sanders, curate exhibits in the Micro-gallery and started my own podcast Don’t Drink the Paint Water.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Nothing has come easy for me in my life but I have found a lot of luck after overcoming challenges. Also, my parents have always nurtured and supported my love of art and are still some of my strongest patrons.
I do not have a left ear, and I am partially deaf. I have had to work harder growing up for educational and even normal social interactions. This has gifted me with the ability to see past difficulties and know that with a little hard work I can do pretty much whatever I want.
I joke that Art is my first language because of my deafness. I did not learn ASL growing up but how to speak English correctly as well as listen extra hard to understand what was going on around me. I still struggle with spelling and getting the correct words to express myself. Art has always granted me a way of expressing myself that anyone can find meaning from. It was second nature to pursue a career as a Visual Artist but it was not an easy path. I still need to be able to verbally explain my artwork and my fear of my own handicaps held me back. Fortunately, I have been a part of artist residencies and organizations where I have met people who have been generous with their own experiences. I’ve learned how to shape my story, how to network, and most importantly how to help others. These strengths have proven to be what I needed to get past what I thought held me back.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I have always loved the forests in East Texas and my art has incorporated it in some way. When I returned home from the residency in New York, that lovely concrete jungle made me truly feel a connection to the survival of the trees in these ancient woods that stretches the country but ends where I live. I feel like the pockets of feral forests are part of our city as much as the houses are. It’s heartbreaking to see these beloved areas plowed down for new developments as much as I am excited to see our city’s growth.
I just finished up and exhibited my series “Home Bound” which portrays the feral woods that grow in my neighborhood despite the ever-growing urban growth that threatens their survival. I want to open up a conversation about urban growth and the diminishing Great Piney Woods, portraying trees that are broken but still thriving trapped in houses and full moon-shaped canvases. During the pandemic the series took on a new focus, finding similarities between these trees’ survival and our own.
The next body of work I have recently started is focused on the need for community and grief/loss. I have been collecting used and dried-out teabags which I unfold and flatten out. Then the paper is used for woodblock prints, depicting images of trees from my life that did not survive the severe winters of the past two years. I sew together each teabag print and will hang the artwork just above eye level. Each teabag print represents a moment in time that an individual spent as well as a tree that was a part of our landscape. In sewing them together, I’m connecting the community and their shared moments as well as the trees which were a part of our landscape, which the viewer must walk through to experience the artwork.
Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Risks have to be taken to find growth. You either live comfortably in one spot or take a risk, which always feels uncomfortable but will give you growth.
The biggest risk I have taken was the NYU Summer Residency I attended. My son was only 10 at the time and I felt like I was abandoning my family. I received some amazing advice from one of my professors, Merrie Write, the year before that stuck with me and helped me overcome my fears. She had gone on a summer-long residency and left her young daughter also, but she was confident that it demonstrated to her that women, even moms, can be professional artists.
The other big risk, that I just took, was to open my own shared Art Studio and Micro-Gallery, In-between Studio. I have dreamed about having a space like this of my own, but it took all of my past experiences to gain the knowledge and research I needed to feel it would be a success. The opportunity feels together better than I expected and has been well received.
I also started my own podcast, Don’t Drink the Paint Water, with the help of my husband’s company Toginet. Because of my deafness, I have not seen myself as a speaker, but I have never let my limitations hold me back. Toginet has been the answer I needed because they not only professionally produce the podcast, they edit it as well. All I have to do is find my guests and have a fun time talking with them about our art experiences!
Pricing:
- Paintings- $150-$3,000
- Woodblock Prints- $50-$150
- Woodblock Printed Teabags- $50-$1,000
- Live Painting- $900 for the event and painting
- Art Class/Workshop- $300 for 12 students
Contact Info:
- Website:www.lisahorlander.com
- Instagram: @lisarachelhorlander
- Facebook: @lisarachelhorlander
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/TiPInOkZWDI
- Other: TikTok @lisarachelhorlander
Image Credits
Benjamin Horlander
