Name: Lisa Jaquez Allen

City of Residence: Manistee, MI

Featured Artwork: The Right to Choose

Exhibition: 10 FOLD, CTAC - Traverse City Cornwell Gallery

On View: now through May 23, 2025

Tell us about the creative process for the featured piece in our exhibition: Rescued from a resale shop in Kaleva, Michigan, I re-imagined this bird using a palette of 10 acrylic colors (ROYGBIV + blk, white, pink) to visually articulate a contemporary societal struggle about our individual rights. In this piece, this bird singing Paul McCartney’s “I’m a bluebird”, speaks to the notions of diversity of color and choice, and every person’s right to name themselves.

Who or what inspires your creativity? 
I come from a family of creative, self-taught, artisans. My paternal grandmother, was a professional seamstress who made custom draperies and slipcovers for a living and handcrafted quilts in her spare time. My maternal grandfather, drew with pencil and sometimes ink on paper napkins at the kitchen table practically every day of his life. My dad was a self-taught engineer and metallurgist who left the trades to became a high school industrial arts teacher. Dad dappled in ceramics for years and in his retirement, became a master woodworker. My mother also quilted …and sewed…and crocheted… and knit…and upholstered…and refinished furniture. My brother got the “drawing gene,” and his favorite subjects were dinosaurs and monsters. Though I have never taken a single art class, I always understood the importance and power of art because it has always been around me. The colors, designs and art of all my family members. And now it’s my turn.

Where can visitors learn more about your work? @lisajaquezallen @ljaglobal designs https://lisajaquezallen.com

Artist Bio: Lisa Jaquez Allen, originally from Chicagoland now resides and makes art in Manistee, Michigan. Lisa’s formal artistic study happened at the University of Notre Dame where she graduated with a BA in Theatre. But she is a self-taught visual artist with a unique passion for rescuing, recycling, and re-imagining old discarded wooden animals. Lisa’s animals have recently been shown in Michigan at The Crooked Tree Gallery, The Oliver Art Center, Ruddiblush Gallery, LWCA Nuveen Gallery, Ludington Area Center for the Arts, and Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts. Her rescued animals have also been seen across the country at Firefly Artists, 437CO Art Gallery, Las Laguna Art Gallery, and online at Las Laguna Art Gallery and Exhibitzone. Lisa is dedicated to rescuing and reviving these forgotten creatures from the past using techniques and patterns from artistic traditions also neglected.

LIGHTNING ROUND!

• When I work, I listen to: The sound of silence.
• For example: I prefer silence. 
• I studied: Theatre.
• "One" art-related thing I can't live without: My dotters.
• Three words that best describe me: Independent, unusual, unbiased.
• Three words that best describe my art: Colorful, patterned, global.

Thank you to Lisa for jumping in and joining us for the Artist Spotlight Q&A in Traverse City!