Lisa Britton
About the Artist
Lisa Britton received her BFA in painting from Arizona State University. After graduation, she spent several months in Berlin, Germany, where she interned for photographer Isabelle Graeff and painter Ross Walker, in addition to co-curating a pop-up exhibition. She has shown work in the United States and Germany. Her work explores themes such as animal rights, disclosure and identity in social media, as well as notions of beauty and decay. Britton, along with friend and artist Alejandra Orozco, are creators of the blog, Pretty Girls Making Cool Shit, which features multiple female artists weekly; aiming to be fun and informative while creating a community of support and empowerment for female artists. She currently lives and works in Seattle, Washington.
Artist Statement
This body of work focuses on flora and fauna (primarily rabbits) in a slightly surreal or transcending space. These implied portals serve as an escape. These animals and scenes from nature are meant to be contemplative and alluring while immersing the viewer in an environment or perspective that is almost attainable. Question your perspective of nature and surroundings, why this animal, flower, plant, or location may invoke certain thoughts and feelings.
Rabbits are used in my work based on my experience with rabbits and learning more about the contradictions in their reality versus the perception of rabbits by most of society. A rabbit spirit animal may symbolize prosperity, abundance, and fertility. Dreaming of a rabbit may signify luck, magic, success, positivity. Despite these positive attributes, rabbits continue to be one of the most exploited animal by humans, due to their use in the textile, pet, and meat industry, in addition to being a prime subject in animal testing. The rabbits portrayed in my work are experiencing a dream or escape from a reality or this controversy of truths. I disagree with those who argue these animals don’t dream, as Shirley Jackson wrote in The Haunting of Hill House: “No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream.”
What is your “Dreamland” ?
This series is a theoretical dreamland of the subject, perhaps a rabbit or even a plant, that is dreaming of another space.
My dreamland is one of some solitude, with lots of art, animals, nature, who are out of harm’s way, a place where they do not need their own dreamland because it has become a reality.
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