Lisa Leitner
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Re-growth (Details) (1)
2022
Cyanotypes, Solar Prints, Natural Inks, Digital Prints
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Re-growth (Details) (2)
2022
Cyanotypes, Solar Prints, Natural Inks, Digital Prints
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Re-growth (Details) (3)
2022
Cyanotypes, Solar Prints, Natural Inks, Digital Prints
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Statement
How can the natural world inform and educate us as learners, artists, and humans? This question has not only been at the core of my thesis investigation, but a constant inquiry for the past few years. In considering my own artistic practice, I realize that I cannot convey a message of sustainability and environmental awareness if I do not first examine my own habits, materials and how I impact the world around me with my practice.
In centering myself as a continuous learner, and by acknowledging the natural world as a source of lifelong education, I can model for my students the importance of being a more responsible artist and human being. Guided by my foundational question, I explored ways of making that were most relevant and immediate in the environment I was working in. This entailed being: resourceful with what I already had and what was around me; playful and explorative in trying new processes or combining different processes without fear of a “bad product”; conscious and aware of what I was taking, making, and doing with the materials; open and receptive to new discoveries, processes, and imagery that emerged in the play; and finally, curious about the space I inhabit and create art in and what it has to offer. Collaborating with the materials, by letting the inks flow, saturate, and fade as they naturally do, for example – and by trying to work with instead of imposing excessively on the nature of the materials, I realized that I was able to achieve a new depth of image and meaning-making.
Natural dyes were the beginnings of my thesis project and I ended up using them in different ways, both with physical and digital media. The digital products of the series combine both physical and digital media through layered photographs; these three processes represent just a few of the many ways in which the natural world serves as a resource and teacher for my arts practice.
Teaching (MAT) Students