Alisa Liguori Stratton

Artist Statement

Resilience, hope and the frequently striking contrast between our internal experience versus the external situation or environment are recurring themes in my collages, photographs and paintings.

My career as a clinical psychologist informs much of my visual work. The experience of a major California wildfire in 2017 has also influenced my creative direction, as my family lost our home, our neighborhood, and our way of life, and subsequently relocated to Michigan.

I have been drawing and making collages since my childhood in the 1960s, and added photography while in my college art program in the early 1980s.

These current works reflect the push/pull between personal or societal expectations and the imperfections of the 'real' world. My work is about experiences that we all share, wherein life feels imperfect, oftentimes surprising, and about the ways in which we are nevertheless able to remain curious, hopeful and in forward motion.