Above, Susan Lizotte’s “Beginnings,” aerosol and oil on canvas, offers vibrant color contrasts with human figures literally popping out of a serene, floral background.
With the LA Art Show rapidly approaching, the time has come to preview the show itself and several specific artists. Lizotte’s works will be included for the second year at BG Gallery’s booth.
The six works she’s exhibiting are all related pieces, she says “They deal with issues of memory, loss and obfuscation. They deal with loss as a means to celebrate the past, present, and future simultaneously,” she says, adding that love, loss, pain and rebirth and regeneration of hope for the future are specifically the thematic meaning behind her three newest Untitled paintings.
Above, thick paint and rich brush strokes and paint application define her visual motif in her 8 x 6 “Untitled” work above.
Previously, Lizotte had exhibited works in her map series. These works are an outgrowth of and a change from that series, in which maps of the world followed both symbolic and literal interpretations in an unique way. “My adopted father fell ill and passed away last fall. Watching him slowly leave his body was an intense experience, I felt as though I was moving from life to death and back to life again,” she explains. “The introspective period I went through inspired these paintings, especially the newest ones. I’ve used flowers as symbols of loss and also as emblems of regeneration and rebirth. I feel it’s a new level for me.”
Above, “Untitled,” 32 x 20″.
Each of these works, in a different way, has an inner glow. Her careful working and reworking of each piece has led to that visual power.
Above, Lizotte’s “Untitled” work depicting flowers.
She says that with this chance to exhibit she “wanted to have a field of color seen altogether so each piece was worked to complement the others, so that when seen together they all glow. It’s kind of trial and error, happy mistakes, too. The aerosol backgrounds are sprayed until I feel happy with that, especially if it’s hard to take a photo of it, then I know what I paint on top will stand out. Focusing on the colors and hand-mixing each color gives them a unique look. ”
Above “Lost Crown,” a haunting dream of the past, perhaps.
Lizotte wants viewers to know that these paintings are very personal. “They are about life and death, mortality, like love and loss, the tentative balance between opposites – color vs no color, light vs dark, implied narrative versus complete abstraction. I hope the viewer can read-in their own stories and desires.”
- Genie Davis; photos courtesy of the artist