Lisa Kiss, Photographer

Lisa Kiss lives and works on the east end of Long Island.
Her work is focused on using nature to express the universal conditions of mankind.
www.lisakiss.net

Lisa Kiss received her BFA in Painting from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. Then travelled to Italy and studied with Tony Vevers in Cortona through the Unviversity of Georgia. On her return from Europe, she moved to Oregon and exhibited Monoprints there as well as in Cortona Italy. Later she studied with Lenore Davis at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina where she began designing textiles.She moved to NY City, started her own business of hand painted scarves and fabrics called 'Lisa L.' in which she sold her fabrics nationally and internationally for over 16 years. Until the fateful day of 9/11 when Lisa L.'s studio and offices were destroyed in the disaster, as it was directly across the street from the World Trade Center Towers. All of her equipment and samples were lost.

Her home was also unable to be lived in, so she moved with her family to the East End of Long Island the very next day. Not long after settling in did she begin a whole new body of work in photography, producing some of the best work of her life in this new location. The beauty of the landscapes surrounding her along with the impact of such a devastating event preceding her exodus from Manhattan must have been the impetus and inspiration for all the work that followed. Now, in any of her travels, Lisa is taking thousands of digital images wherever she goes, to create a new type of documentation of place. Interestingly enough, the images are taking on a patterning effect. The use of digital photography has opened up many possibilities in portraying this aspect in her work. After seeing the recent show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY on the Islamic influence on the Venetian painters, LIsa stated, "I became more keenly aware of how ingrained pattern is in all our lives, through history to the present. Right down to objects in nature through the magnifying glass, one will find the perfection of patterning even there." So it is through found objects in her surroundings that she weaves and quilts and paints with her photographs. There are a few different bodies of work evolving at the same time, all with similar intent. Playing with the sense of place as real or fantasy. In some of the works Lisa will take an image of a wrapped tree to create a human figure placed inside a somewhat foreboding place. In other works she may create a landscape that appears to be natural in it's repetition and flow, yet still one cannot place the reality of it, because it is not quite real, but more 'dream like'.

In a series called, "Mapping Places" Lisa is working with a play on the traditional idea of the "frame" around a "central image". The interest is more in the details and patterning that occur in the frame rather than at the center where we are usually drawn to look. The work on a whole is rich with color and complexity. There is a mission here of not only working in one linear stream with just one idea to pursue. With a wonderful eye for composition, scale and color, as well as a mastery of her medium, Lisa brings a complexity of thought to the work. There is much to look forward to in following this artist in her growth. Lisa Kiss has shown this new work solely on the East End of Long Island in the past two years; at Guild Hall and Ashawagh Hall in East Hampton and Crazy Monkey Gallery, Southampton Cultural Center and DeCordova Gallery, along with other alternative gallery spaces in the Hamptons.