HOARD:
Talk about the violence in your art work.
LISA:
I always have this negative attitude about answering questions about paintings.
Each one of us has a different experience and we define terms of perception based
on that experience. You see blood and guns and you think “violence”.
Someone raised in “bad” neighborhoods may look at the guns and think
“safety”. Draw your own damn conclusions.
But seriously, there's violence all around us. It's a part of life. If you want to ask what it means, for me, it means that every day, society is trying to stamp you with their demands and desires, to shape you according to their needs. They're basically trying to rape you over with a sweet smile. I'm doing pop art, so I have to show pop measures of resistance.
HOARD:
What inspires or informs the content of your art work?
LISA: The
web, Japanese Art, mostly pre-meiji era. The most important muse? Nature.
.
SAKURA MATSURI 24"X 30". 61X 76,2cm
acrylic on canvas 2002
HOARD:
You're the subject of many of your paitnings. Sometimes you appear to portray
yourself as some kind of martyr. Other times you appear to represent yourself
as a hero. You also seem to be a self appointed sex object. How do you see yourself?
LISA: I see myself as part of this world. Living in society you can’t play only one role all your life. One day you’re a hero, the other you're crying for help. Besides, there’s another never ending fight with yourself, we are the cause of all our troubles and worries. It’s a dual nature of every human being . I am my own faithfull ally and strongest enemy at the same time. After me myself, the biggest enemy is society, because society wants to shape you into a slave, always has, always will. We have to see every day as a fight. That's as far as life in society. Harmony can be attained, and must be attained, but it is only attainable through nature.
I
LOVE YOU 20"X 24". 50,8X 61cm acrylic on canvas 2002
HOARD:
Where did you grow up? What was it like there?
LISA: A large city.
I had a happy childhood. Sports kid. I spent a lot of time with my dog, every
summer out in nature or on the seashore, and also with my grandparents in the
suburbs.
HOARD: Where do you currently live and work?
LISA:
I live in New York City. I like hanging out in Chinatown, I also like going to
the Bronx Botanical Garden, and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. I don't party that
much, so social life is about nonexistent. I like the fact that almost all people
in NYC feel like aliens, not in a good way, like aliens from outer space, but
just like someone you can't relate to. If you don't have someone you see as yourself,
you concentrate more on your own goals. I don’t have “casual” friends
here. That’s how I want it.
CORRIDA
48"X 36". 123X91,5cm acrylic on canvas 2002
HOARD:
Can you say something about the group exhibit you were recently a part of at the
Shooting Gallery
in San Francisco? Please tell us a few things about the piece that you had exhibited
in this show.
LISA: I like the history behind the Shooting Gallery,
I like that the owner is not your usual gallery type. I also like the art that
he picks. And from what other artists say about him, he's a stand-up kind of guy.
Which to me is the most important thing. Not what society thinks about someone,
but what he is like when he's treating you and others like you. So he has an original
taste and an authentic vision. I'm showing one of my favorite works. A photo of
a gay couple, two boys, inspired me to make it.
Wir
Sind Schwester und Alle Madchen 48" X 36". 123 X105cm acrylic on canvas
2004
HOARD:
What was your favorite cartoon when you were a kid? Who was your favorite cartoon
character?
LISA: A friend of the family was an animator, so he would
bring all these weird cartoons from all over the world, and translate them for
me. He had all the scripts. I really liked "Lolo the penguin's adventures"(Argentina),
and also "Iko The brave Starling"(USSR-Japan). I loved all Disney’s
cartoons, I greatly respect Walt Disney’s input in animation history. I love
Miyazaki's work, I've watched "Spirited Away" hundreds of times. Also,
"My Neighbour
Totoro". Totoro forever!
TOKYO
MON AMOUR
HOARD:
What's the best place for sushi in New York city?
LISA: I actually
like other Japanese food than sushi. The food they serve in traditional Japanese
fast food places is a lot of fun. All those fried vegetables and seafood tidbits...
There's a really nice large dive on Astor Place, but it's getting crowded as it
is, I'd rather not have more people going there. Easily my fave food place in
NYC. And don't say what it is please, if you know :P
HOARD: What
materials do you use to create your art work? Pen and ink? Paint? Digital tools?
LISA:
I do sketches on paper, pen or pencil, then edit it in Photoshop. Digital illustrations
are done in vectors in Photoshop. I use acrylics for paintings.
I
LOVE CANDY!
HOARD:
What's the most beautiful things you have ever seen?
LISA: Nature
is all there is beautiful to life. Japanese art is the ultimate form of beauty,
primarily because it's a visual culture based on nature. Besides, it's the only
culture that until WWII was not defeated by Christian-Judaist infection of word-think,
they were pagan, Shinto, with Buddhism and a lot of other things, of course. When
you don't think in terms of sin , fear, pleasure and shame, you see things the
way they really are, you see nature.
HOARD: What's the ugliest thing you've ever seen?
LISA: Ugliest things? Would have to be some people. People let their expectations get ahead of perceiving real life. So they get bitter. That's why some people are so ugly. Animals are never ugly, because they don't have a bitter look about them. All about cognitive dissonance, I suppose. “Fight cognitive dissonance, accept life for what it is!”, that's probably a good slogan.
STAR
DANCE 30"X48". 76,2X123cm acrylic on canvas 2002
HOARD:
What do you hope to achieve with your art in the near future?
LISA:
There's a lot of artists out there that think that they can change the world with
their art. I think often it ends up being ego-worship. Self obsessed admiring
of self destruction looks sooooo funny! If you want to be destructive, make yourself
useful, destroy yourself quickly and silently in the dark corner where no one
can see your self pity, we’re overpopulated anyway.
Personally
I explore the world around me, I inhale it and I exhale and it becomes a painting.
If I notice something that seems to me important or beautiful, I tell you about
it in my work.
The message that my art carries is that of self-reliance
and independence and beauty of nature and the fleeting of life. So if someone
sees my art and decides to do something of their own, to stand up to the culture
of voluntary consumeristic slavery that's all around us, then my art is doing
what it should. But there's another thing - you have to do whatever you're inspired
to do till your fingers bleed and you're exhausted. If you don't do something
100%, don't do it at all. My art is not for the weak.
HOARD: Thank you Lisa.
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For more information about Lisa Alisa and her art, click HERE
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