by Lisa Jeanne Graf

Artist’s Statement

The landscapes I draw tend to be rather wiggly. It is the most natural path for my pen to take. 

The inspiration for my wiggling landscapes is the woods that I explored as a child. I always wanted to know what was around the next corner, and loved the unique spots the most. The most magical spot was a circle of trees that made a small room, which was then circled by lady slippers. Other favorite spots were a mysterious pit in the middle of the forest, and hidden jack in the pulpits by the brook. Even now I am drawn to the less obvious parts of the forest - tree roots, rotting tree stumps, moss, mushrooms, skunk cabbage, and holes in tree trunks.

I love to explore, even while creating an artwork. I want to be surprised by what is around the corner.

Artists that influence my work are Dr, Seuss, Tolkien, Burchfield, Grant Wood, and Rousseau. Other influences are Chinese scholar rocks, Early Chinese bronzes, Japanese scrolls, and Indian sculpture. Oh yes and anything that is wiggly.

Materials

For most of the works in this show, I started with drawings on archival watercolor paper. Some of these drawings were transferred to new sheets of watercolor paper with pencil. The materials that were layered over the drawings were inks, markers, colored pencil, watercolor, gauche, and Caran D’ache water soluble artist’s crayons.

Scary Mouth Cavern is a Giclee Print. This print is custom made, and color-corrected. The Giclee process makes it possible to create affordable, high quality prints of any digital image. Inks have an estimated 200-year lifespan under normal conditions, and are rich and vibrant, faithfully capturing the colors of the original.