cow circus
by lisandra Di LIberto Brown
September 1 - October 1, 2016
coolspace @ artspace
Lisandra Di Liberto Brown may make you see red, but her kind of talent, inspira-tion and passion comes around only once in a blue moon.
Lisandra Di Liberto Brown moved to Shreveport from her small town of Hatillo in Puerto Rico for love. That is the sort of passion that is Lisandra Brown, and which is reflected in the brilliant reds, bold blues and opulent oranges that fill her canvasses.
Brown has spent several years building a portfolio that reveals a mixture of reality and fantasy. She may be best known for the red cows she paints with wings. They are a favorite subject for her because the town in which she grew up in Puerto Rico is a center for the country’s milk production. “We say that Hatillo has 38,000 people and 32,000 cows,” jokes Brown.
“I was homesick, so I started drawing cows,” said Brown. “I wanted to fly away home, so I gave my cows wings, but I was deeply, in love with my husband who’s home is here in Shreveport, so I made the cows red to reflect the passion that keeps me here,” added Lisandra.
EXHIBITING ARTIST:
LIsandra Di LIberto Brown
Brown’s art is diverse, however, and ranges from still-life objects to fish that are endowed with legs similar to the wings on her cows and stylized human figures portraying women in fluid poses and muted hues. Her favorite piece is one called “The New Frida,” a self portrait that Brown loves because to her it represents who she wants to be—one of the mot important and inspirational female artists of her time.
In 2014, Louisiana Life Magazine named Brown one of eight Louisianians of The Year as someone who has had great success in her own world. Brown was also recently chosen one of 13 regional artists whose work was exhibited as a part of The Latino Art Project in Little Rock, Arkansas to celebrated Latino culture.
Brown didn’t start out as an artist but studied marketing at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico. She does come from artistic roots, however. Her father is Peruvian and draws and other Ital-ian family members paint and sculpt in Peru. So she eventually gravitated toward the study of art and attended Escuela de Bellas Artes in Santana. She did not fully commit to her art until she moved to Shreveport after meeting and marrying her husband when the two were living and working on the island of St. Croix in the US. Virgin Islands.
Brown found support for her artwork from the Shreveport Regional Arts Council (SRAC) and is a member of the Northwest Louisiana Artists’ Directory and has been named to the state’s roster of touring artists by the Louisiana Division of the Arts. She also participated in the Artists Entrepreneurial Training Program offered by SRAC, which she says helped her gain knowledge about how to market her self as an artist.
“The Shreveport Regional Arts Council has done so much for me and for so many artists in Northwest Louisiana,” said Brown. “I am excited about this show and ready for people to come to artspace and see the whimsical world of ‘Cow Circus.’ I have so much planned and think it will be like nothing anyone has seen in artspace before,” added Brown.