Lisa Beckner

My work has always been a conversation… with myself, with my friends, with all the things I see and love in reality or on television, film.. A Sunday morning cartoon or a person on a train that I made up a story for. I feel in figurative work it is important to think about the conversations and histories that make a sculpture have it’s own personality. Each piece should have its own nod to reality.

At age 8 I became diabetic. I did not want it to be such a big part of my life or thoughts, we don’t choose. This disease and its constrictions are a huge part of me and as such are a big part of my work. The kids I sculpt are made from chicken wire, burlap, kool-aid, sugar, flour, starch.. foods society encourages- yet are so bad for children. The sculptures are malnourished, they have bellies.. have no heads or hands, they are painted with all the things they should not eat. At first I built the entire sculpture.. heads, hands, feet-complete, but every time ended up cutting parts off in an attempt to find an emotion I wanted to express.