The essence of Lisa Tognon’s work lies in the very nature of her being, and finds expression in works that forge a link with the elemental and the metaphysical.
Her latest series was born of deep emotion, translated into art that goes beyond the visual and the tactile, into a realm of aesthetics that only an artist of her caliber can inspire.
Choosing paper as her medium, this talented printmaker has produced an impressive body of work that is constantly evolving and transforming. Her latest drawings and prints are as painterly as they are graphic. Incorporating acrylic ink and a new technique of embossing, they present a vast visual landscape that is continually varied, each series speaking its own pictorial language. Seeking what she calls “the unconscious dimension of the human being”, Tognon reaches for the archetypal in her creative endeavours, opening
through her art portals into otherworldly realms.
From Atlantide to Materia Prima, she explores an évantail of visual expression, almost like mapping a long, long journey that has taken her into the deepest recesses of her creativity, and spirit.
Some of her recent works are marked by fire, scorched with a lighter, gauged, with tears and rips in the delicate paper; a fury controlled yet impossible to ignore.
Others are like diving into underwater caverns, blue and cool, presented in triptychs and series, further implying the notion of flowing water. There is something primordial in these dark, mysterious works; a strange, seductive force seems to draw one deeper and deeper.
Tognon’s embossed prints, pale, monochromatic, marked with symbols, perhaps letterings, are Zen-like in their meditative stillness, offering a quiet respite from the powerful energy emanating from the other works.
In many of the prints, the scratches that mark her well-used copper matrix – itself a work of art –, become part of the composition, and an imprint of the artist’s labour.
Inspired by music and poetry, Tognon’s latest pieces are an impressive new chapter in her career. A sense of a newfound freedom permeates the whole production; there is a feeling of release, of a Taoist flow of consciousness, and inspiration.
Tognon is a master in manipulating matter, moving with impressive ease from one technique to another, seeking, searching, in a passionate, relentless pursuit of the ultimate artistic expression.
By Dorota Kozinska
She's Montreal-based international writer and art critic, and the editor of Vie des Arts English Edition.