Lisa DeFrance

Artist Statement

For three decades I've worked with materials at hand in performance, with textiles, and design. Being present to what is creates a path where judgment can be suspended, and authentic work can emerge.

I make durational performances and textile-based work that explores memory, endurance, and the body's knowledge. I'm drawn to secondhand clothing and domestic textiles that have been worn and used, objects that carry previous lives and the labor of care. I choose images and materials that allow for multiple narratives to emerge. While I work from my own story, I'm more interested in what gets activated in others—where our experiences overlap or diverge, what becomes possible when objects speak to many people at once.

My practice is informed by somatic work and depth psychology—how the body holds what language can't, how the witness observes without fixing, how presence matters more than resolution. I make space for fragments to integrate. The work asks audiences to sit with discomfort, slowness, and transformation rather than offering easy answers.

As a public-school teacher, my practice focuses on building collective intelligence and critical thinking through mindfulness, solution-oriented problem solving, and discourse. In both art and teaching, I trust the intelligence of bodies, materials, and groups to find their own way forward. Collaboration and relationality remain central to how I work.