Lisa Barthelson

printmaking, collage, mixed media, sculpture

For over a decade, my art has been the debris from my family’s consumption, remade. In response to efforts to purge as our three children grew, the family debris series was conceived to re-use what remained as art materials. The resulting art, comprising printmaking, mixed media, sculpture and installation work, communicates my perspective on motherhood, childhood, feminism, consumerism, environmental impact, sustainability and the overpowering ubiquity of plastic. Playful and predatory, as varied as the objects used, the work is fueled by part imagination, anguish, humor and guilt, and is pleasurable penance for a family using and discarding too much. The goal is to reflect, re-imagine, re-compose, reduce, reveal and repurpose what we already possess, and in the end: waste not, want not

My work has been featured in curated exhibitions of contemporary art at the Fitchburg Art Museum, the Newport Art Museum and the Danforth Art Museum. The site specific sculpture: ’hangling’ was purchased in 2018, by the Newport Art Museum for their Permanent Collection. Commissions include site specific wall sculptures for Kronos. Inc. and Worcester State University. Artist-in-residence fellowships have been awarded by Vermont Studio Center VT, Playa OR and The Kimmel Harding Nelson Arts Center NE. Current memberships include: the Boston Printmakers and the Blackstone Print Studio and as an Associate Member of the Boston Sculptors Gallery. I work from a studio in Worcester MA.