ARTIST BIO

Lisa Britton is an oil painter based in Seattle WA. Her work focuses on flora and fauna, primarily rabbits. She is an expert at capturing their personality while using saturated color within her paintings.

She received her BFA in painting from Arizona State University. After graduation, she spent several months in Berlin, Germany, where she interned for photographer Isabelle Graeff and painter Ross Walker and co-curated a pop-up exhibition. She has shown work in the United States and Germany. Her previous work has explored themes such as animal rights, disclosure and identity in social media, as well as notions of beauty and decay.

Britton, along with friend and artist Alejandra Orozco, are creators of the blog, Pretty Girls Making Cool Shit, aiming to be fun and informative while creating a community of support and empowerment for female artists.

ARTIST STATEMENT

This body of work features flora and fauna in a slightly surreal or transcending space. These implied portals serve as an escape. These animals and scenes from nature are meant to be contemplative and alluring while immersing the viewer in an environment or perspective that is almost attainable or dream-like.

Rabbits are used in my work based on my experience with rabbits and learning more about the contradictions in their reality versus the perception of rabbits by most of society. A rabbit spirit animal may symbolize prosperity, abundance, and fertility. Dreaming of a rabbit may signify luck, magic, success, positivity. Despite these positive attributes, rabbits continue to be one of the most exploited animals by humans. The rabbits portrayed in my work are experiencing a dream or escape from a reality or this controversy of truths. I disagree with those who argue these animals don’t dream, as Shirley Jackson wrote in The Haunting of Hill House: “No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream.”

Seattle, WA / United States