Lisie Orjuela
The act of stopping, pausing, and proceeding attentively is an infrequent, yet desperately needed endeavor in today’s frenetic, chaotic, and dissonant world. Lisie S. Orjuela intentionally slows down her creative practice, to be present, to be open, and to allow for the subtle relationships of shapes and nuanced variations of colors to lead the way. Thinking, feeling, sensing, and processing along with the fleshy physicality of oil paint, the lusciousness of the colors, the crunchiness of the charcoal, and the awkward relationships of the shapes, each drawing, each painting begins to take shape. In her Port Chester, NY studio she attentively works on each piece. Lisie S. Orjuela’s heritage and influences come from a mix of cultures, visual experiences, and living rhythms stemming from her Argentinian roots and from the variety of places she has lived in: Uruguay, Switzerland, Mexico, and seven states within the United States.
Orjuela has held solo exhibitions at The Rye Arts Center in Rye, NY; Moira Fitzsimmons Art Gallery in Hamden, CT; Gallery 263 in Cambridge, MA; Edit Gallery in Richmond, VA; Marie Louise Trichet Art Gallery in Litchfield, CT; Port Washington Public Library in Port Washington, NY; and Ulla Surland Gallery II in Fairfield, CT. She has also had two-artists exhibitions at UConn Stamford Art Gallery in Stamford, CT and Scott & Bowne in Kent, CT, and has participated in numerous group exhibitions.
An expanse is cleared, so as to slow down, to be present. Unfolding a space to be intimate, open, vulnerable, and to carefully listen to what is not so obvious. I follow the line and see where it will lead, what will open, what will be laid bare. Thinking, feeling, sensing, and processing along with the textured contact of charcoal on paper, the smoothness of oil pastels and the flatness of gouache paint, a moment is held close, is touched. Brought up and formed through different cultures, from my birth in Peru to deeply religious Argentinian parents, to living in Uruguay, Argentina, Switzerland, Mexico, and seven US states, drawing is grounding. It centers me, holds me fully present in this moment, in this place.