credit: Lisa Kaser

On the Way to Somewhere Wonderful

How does an artist start with one form of artistic media and shift to something entirely different? That’s a good question to ask Lisa Kaser.

I interviewed Lisa for a story on Oregon Art Beat and found out she began her love affair with art with fabric. She learned to sew and quilt from her mother. And she also experimented with knitting, embroidery and even tatting! So it’s little wonder that she decided to focus on fiber arts in college.

At the University of Oregon Kaser was introduced to felt making. It was the hands-on aspect that appealed to her. And also that it was kind of an unknown art form. Kaser thought it would be great to use in a sculptural way, making enormous felted wall hangings decorated with embroidery. She had a successful career with her textiles, showing all over the West Coast.

So how did she come to be known for her paintings? Very gradually! Kaser says her brother was known as “the painter” in the family, and she was very intimidated by that, so she kept her own “doodles” on the private side — a “closet painter” she called herself.

But the big motivation for the switch came when Kaser moved into a smaller apartment. She no longer had the space necessary to do her big felted work, so she began to play around a bit more with her drawings. She’d cut the whimsical figures out of her sketchbook, paint them and glue them to another sheet of paper where she’d painted a background.

She also began to paint her little critters on canvas bags to sell. But she found out that people were cutting up her bags to frame the artwork! So she decided to plunge into painting. Soon she was selling prints and originals and even doing some illustrations.

Fiber hasn’t completely gone out of her life, however. Kaser still makes small felted pieces that she turns into sculptured figures by using found objects and wax. She feels she’s come full circle with her art and says she’s very lucky to be able to make a living doing what she loves.

Watch Oregon Art Beat: Lisa Kaser