When I was growing up, my family had a large collection of photo albums. I loved paging through those images of my parents as children, my grandparents when they were young, great-grandparents and other relatives that were gone before I was born. Asking questions about what they were like, I got to know them through the stories I was told. Later, I was naturally drawn to vintage photographs of strangers found at antique stores. It would make me sad that they were lost and forgotten, with no stories to tell. As I developed as an artist, I continued to return to those photographs as my source of inspiration and developed a way to rescue them from obscurity. My approach to developing a piece starts with an image that sparks my curiosity – who are those people, what is their story, what is happening in their lives at this moment?

In art school, I found adhering to a single medium to be confining. I was delighted to discover that there was a thing called ‘mixed-media,’ and I embraced the freedom to create with whatever materials I wanted, or simply had on hand. My materials are often the photographs themselves, as well as other discarded ephemera that are collaged and painted upon. My fabric collages incorporate batik cottons for their painterly quality, and as a drawing surface for colored pencils. This combination of materials allows me to achieve a soft and dreamlike effect, blurring the lines between reality and memory.

For my most recent work, I am exploring the malleability of slow-drying acrylics, pushing their boundaries to emulate the richness of oils. This experimentation allows me to layer, blend, and build depth in satisfying ways that bring life to the figures I create. My inspiration for this work comes from a summer visit to the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, where viewing the work of Pierre Bonnard, Henri Edmund Cross, Georges Seurat and others fueled my irresistible desire to paint.

I am a resident of Plymouth, where I have a studio in the Plymouth Artist Collective. I hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan, with a concentration in graphic design. Through my work, I hope to evoke a sense of connection and introspection, inviting others to pause and reflect on the delicate balance between past and present, memory and imagination.

– Alessandra Collar Lipman