Featured Artist: Lori Cuisinier Opens Her Studio

What are your thoughts on participating in the 8th Annual Long Island City Arts Open Festival?  What do you hope to get out of opening your studio to the public?

I am relatively new in my LIC studio so the timing is perfect.  The Open Studios Tour provides an opportunity for me to meet fellow artists, collectors and neighbors while introducing them to my work. My own family of artists and friends who have not yet ventured "east" will see my fab new space and can experience the creative and vibrant energy of this diverse neighborhood.

Will visitors see works-in-progress or only finished artworks?

My primary focus is on showing my current body of work -- Death, love (+ evrythg else).

Where do you find inspiration?

I am spurred on by pure raw, gut-wrenching emotion; the desire to feel as deeply as possible and to inhale life as fully as possible.

Death, love (+ evrythg else) rides, in part, on my complete obsession with Poem 64 -- a 408 line mini-epic by 1st century BC Roman poet Catullus. In 2008 I discovered him by chance when visiting the lake region in Northern Italy where he was born. Catullus died young having written a total of 119 numbered poems. Not having been a recent scholar of Latin or Greek  literature, mythology was thrown back into my face, the written form of which I found to be a profoundly moving and visually impactful. Additional influences include, ancient Greek and Roman statuary, Renaissance painting and sculpture and mens' entertainment magazines.  

In Death, love (+ evrythg else), I am in control and am thus empowered by Ariadne.  I interpret / re-interpret; imagine / re imagine.  While the images may be viewed as erotic (and they are obviously sensual), I dictate the degree by which my physical, psychological and emotional self is exposed (Ariadne/Lori). Using my body as a vehicle for Ariadne's portrayal,  my three-dimension world remains hidden.  

Despite the promises and subsequent abandonment by Theseus, Ariadne is not a victim here. "She" is choosing what you will see and is essentially manipulating the viewer. What she makes you feel or not feel is in your hands.   AND, she is not at all invested in how you respond.  Or ... if you "understand". Where ever you do arrive, however,  shall be considered valid ... for you.  She is the untapped feminine power of our past and present time. Ariadne has arrived at a position of strength. Likewise, have I.

Death, love (+evrythg else) is ongoing and will evolve as a succession of images and installations.  Currently, I am working with artist Kate Raudenbush on a multi-media proposal for a satellite installation at the Venice Biennale 2019

What's hanging on the wall in your home (or studio)?

At home -- my own large scale images from earlier bodies of work; one large oil painting from my earliest years in NYC  (still life in interior setting);  two ink drawings of female nudes and two figurative drawings in oil pastel.