Lizi Brown
Lizi Brown teaches and paints in the Boston area. She studied at the SMFA, receiving a Diploma in Studio Art, a Fifth Year Certificate, and a Traveling Scholarship. Her classes support strong skill development and individual expression. "Immersion in water, air, life, paint got me back to people in water. I'm exploring breath and skin, visual reverberations of physical experience. Technically this is about physics, too. It's wet in wet with a palette knife. The qualities of a particular knife load keep me in the moment."
Heartbeat
How we carry ourselves interests me. Living in a rich multi-cultural mix, borrowing and riffing from each other, the clothing and body language of one mean something very different in the eyes of another. We assess posture quickly, look again, find something we think we understand. These cues, as subtle and sharp as verbal accents, inform our decisions. We are fooled time and time again. Racial profiling doesn’t work. Assumptions go wrong. Still, we want to present ourselves in the ‘right’ way, whatever we think that is at the moment. Watching the latest trends whips us from thrilled to flummoxed. Similarly, working with ink is exciting, chancy, and humorous. The materials move and set, ephemeral and then permanent. The elements morph from dumpy to cool, and back. Recognition, confusion, and acceptance co-exist.
In this time of cutting apart based on insignificant made-up differences, the daily pulse of the dog walk is a comfort to me. This neighborhood dance of silliness, pride, and humility snags my attention, a rambling heartbeat parade. Keeps me thinking about blessings and commonalities and what stitches us together. I follow the looping complicated hip and leg rhythms, make a quick sketch, run to the studio, catch some of it. I spot something, lose it, redraw it, work fast, wait. The figures move around, fade and emerge as the paper dries. Other pulses close to home come into this: busses, commuters, dancers, children heading home from school. The street brings us together; that’s what I paint. -Lizi Brown 2019