Lisa Berley Boulder, Colorado
Visual artist and poet Lisa Berley began her career as art director at KQED TV in San Francisco after receiving a BFA in painting and photography from the San Francisco Art Institute. At the intersection of art and media Berley began her pioneering work as an artist for Aurora Systems, developing one of the first computer graphics and animation systems for television. After returning to New York she raised a family, wrote a blog, and exhibited mixed media/collage works in galleries across Long Island culminating in a one-woman show in Geneseo, New York. In 2016 Berley moved to Boulder, Colorado and after her sons accidental death from a fall, began using methods similar to her collage paintings to create hybrid erasure poetry/collage. Her nonlinear approach to poetry/collage, redacting found words and images to create new reductive fragments, mirrors her journey of profound grief.
What is Art for you?
Visual art is a language I keep practicing and learning from, a beautiful way to communicate with myself and others. It’s a necessary lifeline and a practice of discovery.
What is chocolate to you?
My love of chocolate comes from my father. I especially love dark chocolate. All my worries melt away and it’s just about that moment of pleasure.
What inspires you, and this piece in particular?
I made this piece after I had completed my manuscript of visual poetry, finding Nefesh, where the words came first and then the visuals. This was one of the first pieces I made where I began again with visuals and then the words. It is about me about women and what makes us tick. Integrating the words after the images was a new challenge.
