Chakrabarti, Lisa
About the Artist:
Lisa Chakrabarti was born in Manhattan, New York and grew up on Long Island. She began drawing at age 2 and sold her first artwork – pen and ink drawings at an arts and crafts fair – at age 14. She attended the State University of New York at Fredonia where she studied art and foreign languages and worked in Germany for over a year before moving to Los Angeles, California where she landed a job as a gofer in a foreign exchange trading room. Lisa quickly advanced in her new career to become the youngest VP of Foreign Exchange at Chase Manhattan (Now JPM) at that time. However, in 1988 Chase decided to close the trading desk in Los Angeles, and although Lisa was offered a job at any international Chase branch of her choosing, she and her husband, Gautam, decided to remain in Los Angeles where they have a large, extended family. After leaving Chase, Lisa changed careers and decided to ‘follow her art”, working in a variety of media: oils, acrylics, pastels, watercolors, graphite and colored pencils. Focusing on a style she calls ‘romantic naturalism” – impressionism based largely on subjects in the natural world – her works found their way into galleries in Los Angeles, Florida, Colorado and New York. |
In 1995 Lisa was drawn to sumi-e and Chinese ink paintings after being introduced to both techniques through Asian friends. She later took up Chinese calligraphy and spent five years studying with Chinese master Zhu Cheng-jun prior to his return to China.
Lisa collaborates with Aikido practitioner/writer/photographer Beth Shibata, having illustrated and published two chapbooks on the relationship between sumi-e and Aikido and Iiado. Lisa also illustrated the charming children’s book, “Billy the Bullfrog Finds a New Home” written by Shibata.
A cancer survivor, Lisa is associated with University of Southern California School of Medicine, where she was treated, and has contributed her artwork in many forms; including licensing her artwork for cards, and is part of the permanent Art collection at the Jennifer Diamond Research Library at USC/Norris Cancer Center. She also was a featured artist in a documentary about the healing power of art produced by USC School of Cinematic Arts. More recently several of Lisa’s pieces were exhibited in a group show with 5 Japanese artists at Chozenji Temple, Shinjuku, Tokyo.
Today Lisa lives and paints in her Los Angeles studio in the Koreatown neighborhood. She maintains an internet presence at www.clouddragonart.com
Artist Contact Information:
lisatatsu@gmail.com
Lisa collaborates with Aikido practitioner/writer/photographer Beth Shibata, having illustrated and published two chapbooks on the relationship between sumi-e and Aikido and Iiado. Lisa also illustrated the charming children’s book, “Billy the Bullfrog Finds a New Home” written by Shibata.
A cancer survivor, Lisa is associated with University of Southern California School of Medicine, where she was treated, and has contributed her artwork in many forms; including licensing her artwork for cards, and is part of the permanent Art collection at the Jennifer Diamond Research Library at USC/Norris Cancer Center. She also was a featured artist in a documentary about the healing power of art produced by USC School of Cinematic Arts. More recently several of Lisa’s pieces were exhibited in a group show with 5 Japanese artists at Chozenji Temple, Shinjuku, Tokyo.
Today Lisa lives and paints in her Los Angeles studio in the Koreatown neighborhood. She maintains an internet presence at www.clouddragonart.com
Artist Contact Information:
lisatatsu@gmail.com
Neighborhood Cat, 2020
Sumi and watercolor on washi
11 × 11 inches
About the Art:
"I go for a walk every day, COVID or not. Met the cat while on a walk."
Sumi and watercolor on washi
11 × 11 inches
About the Art:
"I go for a walk every day, COVID or not. Met the cat while on a walk."
English Rose, 2020
Sumi and watercolor on washi
8.25 × 10.75 inches
About the Art:
"At the outset of the COVID-19 lockdown, I decided I would try to learn something new and/or paint every day. This is one such painting."
Sumi and watercolor on washi
8.25 × 10.75 inches
About the Art:
"At the outset of the COVID-19 lockdown, I decided I would try to learn something new and/or paint every day. This is one such painting."
Red Hydrangea, 2020
Black Fabriano paper, watercolor
8 × 8 inches
About the Art:
"Experimental piece that worked."
Black Fabriano paper, watercolor
8 × 8 inches
About the Art:
"Experimental piece that worked."
Ponder, 2020
Xuen paper, sumi and watercolor
16 × 12 inches
About the Art:
"Inspired by a little bird nestled in a pine tree where I live."
Xuen paper, sumi and watercolor
16 × 12 inches
About the Art:
"Inspired by a little bird nestled in a pine tree where I live."
Mercedes Guzman
On Snake River, 2020
Oil on canvas
Oil on canvas
Palos Verdes Coast, 2020
Oil on canvas
Oil on canvas
Lake Como, 2020
Oil on canvas
Oil on canvas
Havey, Lily
Prayers for Peace (triptych), Wakayama/Hiroshima, Amache, Buddhist Prayer, 2020
Origami paper
21 × 21 inches
About the Art:
My three panels of tsuru are three prayers for peace. Each one has one tsuru with writing, either in Japanese or English, focusing on a specific topic. The blue/green one has part of a Buddhist prayer which I found in one of my mother’s prayer books. The purple/pink one is dedicated to Wakayam and Hiroshima, my father’s and my mother’s home towns. This one also relates to the bombing of Hiroshima and a prayer that this will never happen again. The red/orange one refers to Amache, the internment camp in Colorado where I spent four years imprisoned behind barbed wire.
Origami paper
21 × 21 inches
About the Art:
My three panels of tsuru are three prayers for peace. Each one has one tsuru with writing, either in Japanese or English, focusing on a specific topic. The blue/green one has part of a Buddhist prayer which I found in one of my mother’s prayer books. The purple/pink one is dedicated to Wakayam and Hiroshima, my father’s and my mother’s home towns. This one also relates to the bombing of Hiroshima and a prayer that this will never happen again. The red/orange one refers to Amache, the internment camp in Colorado where I spent four years imprisoned behind barbed wire.
Hirasaki, Parrish
The Holiday Baker, 2020
Watercolor on paper
14 × 11 inches
Watercolor on paper
14 × 11 inches
Up, Up, and Away, 2020
Watercolor on paper
10 × 14 inches
Watercolor on paper
10 × 14 inches