Lisa Orr, “Navigation”

Lisa Orr is a creative, empathetic, and devoted artist. To her, paint is life’s blood; a tool to give her inner impressions, feelings, and opinions objective concrete form. Her paintings — as small as 18″ x 24″ and as large as 48″ x 60″ — offer a vehicle of self-scrutiny, self-understanding, and self-overcoming. Much like the works of mid-20th century Abstract Expressionists, her paintings seek to represent moods and emotions. Orr converts the metaphysical into colorful, expressionistic, and abstract paintings. In turn this process is transformative for her: what is transcendence if not a model of freedom?

A few of her early paintings in the Transcendence series consist of mixed media over dark, thick, earthly colors. They remind us that the roots of art lie in the unconscious, that art is a solitary act. In two paintings from 2008, “The Voyage” and “Self Portrait,” the canvas was metamorphosed into a hostile fabric to be gagged, slashed, stitched, and burned. The images constructed, both tactile and visual, are symbolic allegories for suffering and healing. Here catharsis is the motor for transcendence. Orr even evokes a primitive form of ritualistic healing in “Rising”: dirt and dried branches, all in process of deterioration and decay, are woven together into an enclosed space surrounded by a smoky atmosphere.

Lisa Orr, “Time”

The horizon line, and therefore the ocean, is a recurring motif in Orr’s work. It appears between murky waters and an acid-yellow sky in “Time.” Although mostly consisting of pastels, it is an opaque and troubled landscape; the picture is trapped within the frame by a border of paint; sky and ocean barely reveal small, hand-painted, unintelligible words. It represents a period of stagnation for the artist. The motif reappears a year later in “The Mix,” this time pointing at the constancy of change, yet it is still grounding, and reassuring.

The fifteen paintings in Orr’s Transcendence series reveal an artist that is evolving and refining her practice. Orr’s original expressive impulses slowly shift away from symbolic, psychic, and controlled, towards looser, abstract, dynamic compositions. Orr’s work progresses: the thick pure pigments in “Flux” slowly begin to dissolve, drip, and open room to breathe. The negative space in “Eager” offers a sense of renewed clarity, even if under duress, only to be followed by restlessness and dissonance in “Navigation.” In “Harvest” and “Transcend” a new bravura style emerges: restricted color palette, confident vertical and horizontal strokes generate atmospheric depth. Each step of the way Orr’s paintings record the most delicate gesture next to the most tense. Then, in 2010, the paintings become a mosaic of color sensations – each brushstroke in “Summer,” “Atmosphere,” and “The Veil” mark the point of a new feeling or a new thought. It is a dance between liquid thoughts and concrete optics. In other words, her paintings move deeper and deeper into the domain of the contemplative and purely visual. The results are frustrating only if you seek literal meaning; otherwise, they are ravishingly beautiful.

Orr’s work can be seen at the City Library, Anderson-Foothill Branch through October 1.

Sue Martin

Sue Martin holds an M.A. in Theatre and has worked in public relations. As an artist, she works in watercolor, oil, and acrylic to capture Utah landscapes or the beauty of everyday objects in still life.