Lucinda Bliss

Lucinda Bliss, Exodus I, 11” x 8”, 35 mm prints on Ektacolor Standard Glossy paper, 2008

Lucinda Bliss, Scarlet Letter: Love, Graphite pencil, ink, watercolor, and gouache, 2008

Lucinda Bliss, Love, Hunger, Vengeance, Truth, 23” x 23”, watercolor, gouache, and graphite pencil, 2008

Lucinda Bliss, Scarlet Letter, Graphite pencil, ink, watercolor, and gouache, 2008

Lucinda Bliss, Lessons in English, (installation view), mixed media & altered books, 2008

ARTIST STATEMENT
From the raven who steals the sun to the trickster coyote and the laughing mother, humor has been claimed in many forms as a vehicle for subversive communication. Reading Lewis Hyde, Susan Rubin Suleiman, and others has fed my exploration into how a playful visual language and process can speak to serious matters, such as the grave situation of the natural environment.

I’ve incorporated the act of playing into my practice, and in that act am considering the role of artist as trickster. For example, some of the recent photographs and drawings began with a bag of small plastic animals taken into the woods, into fields, and onto the roof, where they were set up in exodus on a landscape of melting snow and ice and photographed. The act of playing, and the resulting work, references mythologies from a range of cultures, including religious narratives (most obviously Noah’s arc). However, in this work there is no external/overt system (distant God) to pair up earth's inhabitants and direct the migration. Instead, mystery lives in the present, in what can be created without divinely wiping the slate clean.

Within the overarching theme of mystery, protection, and healing, I give my self the freedom and pleasure of a meandering inquiry.

EDUCATION
1997-1999 Vermont College, Montpelier, VT, M.F.A. in Visual Art
1983-1988 Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, B.A. in Art History

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2008Exposing Scarlet, The Ross Gallery, Central Piedmont Community College, Charlotte, North Carolina

2007
Tiny, Whitney Art Works, Portland, Maine
Intelligent Design, Whitney Art Works, Portland, Maine
Body Parts, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, Maine

2006
The Ostrich Diaries and Other Stories, SPACE gallery, Portland, Maine
Filling in the Hole, The Chocolate Church Arts Center, Bath, Maine

2004
Exposing Scarlet: A Visual Response to The Scarlet Letter, Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
solo show, Patricia Carega Gallery, Sandwich, New Hampshire
Benaddiction 2004, Goliath Visual Space, Brooklyn, New York
Invitational featuring 17 new drawings, The Hay Gallery, Portland, Maine
What's Love Got to Do With It, Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona

2003
Art as Activism, The Meeting House Gallery, New Marlborough, Massachusetts
10th Biennial National Juried Exhibition, Dinnerware Gallery, Tucson, Arizona
National Prize Show, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Shelter, College of the Atlantic Blum Gallery, Bar Harbor, Maine
Critical Selections.1, Miranda Fine Arts, Port Chester, New York

2001
The Culture of Nature: Artists Explore the Environment, The Chocolate Church Arts Center, Bath, Maine
The Greater Portland Regional, Danforth Gallery, Portland, Maine

2000
Works on Paper, Hazmat/Moca, Tucson, Arizona
Death Penalty Show, Flynn Dog Gallery, Burlington, Vermont
On the Horizon, The University of New England Art Gallery, Portland, Maine
Anatomy of Desire:the Daughter/MotherSessions, The University of Arizona, Arizona Ballroom Gallery, Tucson
On the Horizon, The College of the Atlantic, Blum Gallery, Bar Harbor, Maine

1999Anatomy of Desire: an Alphabet of Identity, The Wood Gallery, Vermont College, Montpelier, Vermont

1997Family Affair, Pfizer, New London, Connecticut

1996The Figure, South of North Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

1995Unknown Chicago,Gallery 312, Chicago, Illinois

1993
Las Seis, Zitlala, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Voyeur, Rod Goebel Gallery, Taos, New Mexico

1992
Collaborations, Firestone Art Space, Santa Fe, New Mexico
New Work, New Mexico, Copeland-Rutherford, Santa Fe, New Mexico

CURATOR
2004Exposing Scarlet: A Visual Response to the Scarlet Letter, Boston Center for the Arts Mills Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts

2001
The Culture of Nature: Artists Explore the Environment, The Chocolate Church Arts Center, Bath, Maine
Aesthetic Diversity, The Chocolate Church Arts Center, Bath, Maine

LECTURES
2007Claiming the Legacy of Feminism, Vermont College

2006
Unbound Text: An Introduction to My Work, Vermont College
Muse Dialogues, Guest lecture for Muse, Portland, Maine
Sunday Art Salon, The Chocolate Church Arts Center, Bath, Maine

2002
Unbound Text, College of Art, Portland, ME

PUBLICATIONS
2000Anatomy of Desire: the Daughter/Mother Sessions, Tucson, Arizona: Kore Press

BIBLIOGRAPHY
2007
Coffee Lids by Design: Four Artists Explore Intelligent Design, by Ian Paige, The Portland Phoenix, Portland, Maine
Creative Habitats, by Jeremy Frey, The Portland Phoenix, Portland, Maine

2005
Heady Rubbish, by Lynn Deming (Providence, RI: The Providence Athenaeum, 2005)
Hunger Mountain, The Vermont College Journal of Arts and Letters, four images of drawings from the exhibit Exposing Scarlet
The Saint Ann’s Review, a Journal of Contemporary Arts and Letters, cover image and two other reproductions in 25th anniversary issue
Tempted by a Dream: Luminous Shadows Cast by ‘The Scarlet Letter, Susan Boulanger, Art New England

2004
The Saint Ann's Review, a Journal of Contemporary Arts and Letters, full page reproductions of 4 mixed media drawings
Red-letter days at the BCA reveal society’s secrets, Cate McQuaid, Boston Sunday Globe
Rikki Don’t Lose that Number, Randi Hopkins, The Boston Phoenix
Gotta Have Art, Thomas Garvey, Bay Windows – Fall Preview
Damariscotta art gallery, sculpture garden opens new exhibit, Lincoln County News, (reproduction of ink drawing)
Art in March, Further Reflections on Beauty, by Laurie Meunier Graves, Wolf Moon Press: A Maine Magazine of Art and Opinion

2002Bliss' Bear is Biological, The Waldo Independent

2001
The Death Penalty Show, Flynndog Gallery, Burlington, VT, Review Art New England
Mortality felt while looking at the ocean felt by Bath artist, The Times Record, Volume 35 Number 18

2000
Body Work, Tucson Weekly, vol.16, #50, Feb. 17, p. 21
Anatomy of Desire explores physical, intellectual desires, Arizona Daily Wildcat, vol. 93, #100, Feb. 17, p.11
Deconstructing Desire: Lucinda Bliss and Alison Deming confront the dichotomy of mother as lover,Tucson Weekly, vol. 16, #52, Mar. 2, p.41
The Saint Ann's Review, a Journal of Contemporary Arts and Letters,(full page reproductions of two pieces)
The Culture of Nature: Artists Explore the Environment
, Orion Online www.oriononline.org

AWARDS
2005Good idea grant, Maine Arts Commission, Augusta, ME
2004Pierogi, Brooklyn, New York
2002-2005The Drawing Center, New York, New York
2002Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
1998G. Roy Levin-Jessica Lutz Merit Prize, Vermont College


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