From architecture to sculpture, it’s a new path for innovative Cornwall artist Lisa Keskinen

CORNWALL — A couple of years ago, Lisa Keskinen was hit by the reality of the recession. Her two decades-long career as an architect in New Haven was the victim of the hard times. Her response was to take it as an opportunity. Back on Town Street, where she grew up, she is already testing the spatial limits of her small studio. “One of my first thoughts after being laid off was,” Keskinen says now, “was that now I’d have more time for my art.”Her work will be featured at The Wish House Gallery from Memorial Day weekend through the end of July.She paints, but it is her collage and sculpture work that have been growing, literally and figuratively. S he finds inspiration in items mangled or worn by time, and in natural structures found in nature. She might, for instance, take metal scraps and connect them to resemble a huge, undulating leaf.While she works a couple of part-time jobs to help pay the bills, Keskinen is letting her art evolve and lead her where it wants to go. It is beginning to sell, which is grand motivation to keep going. She doesn’t miss city life much, but is grateful that the Internet allows her to stay connected. On the positive side of the new ledger of her life, the connection with peace and nature and the support Cornwall offers its artists have become vital to her. Her focus at the moment is largely on paper weavings, which allow her to let her imagination soar in limited space. “The first ones I did were not unlike what you would do in grade school,” she said. “But it’s about using basic materials and what’s on hand. It speaks to the problem-solving architect in me.”Keskinen started weaving images and text, and was fascinated with the effect gained from using images with gradient color, like the sky changing from light to dark blue. She began printing her own gradient images, weaving them into abstracts, landscapes and pictures.She is also using her model-making expertise to explore scale and pieces that might be public art projects down the road. Wherever her art leads her, she mused, “I’m open to going bigger. I could always move out some of my furniture.”For more on her work, go to www.lisakeskinen.com.

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