MendocinoArts - Mendocino Art Center

Keeping Track, 9"x12", encaustic on panel with scraping and
layering.
along with my gallery group, all my friends, and the
buzz of my birthplace. Berkeley is a hard place to leave.”
Classes with Bob Rhoades at College of the Redwoods,
and Bill Martin’s weekly figure drawing studio at the Art
Center, allowed Lisa to “stay oiled,” but it was yoga that
provided perspective. In 2000, a fellow yogi suggested
teacher training classes with noted instructor Rodney
Yee. “At the class, every time I lay on my back, I started
crying,” Lisa recalls. “Yoga works with our bodies, but its
practice opens up much more. During meditation, I could
watch my mind jumping hither and yon. Thus I came to
understand that a discerning mind is great in art and life,
but a critical mind is a hindrance. Each of my teachers
offered the same wisdom: persevere through the rough
spots, breathe, stay focused and calm, and keep at it until
the chaos resolves.”
In 2004, a friend urged Lisa to try an encaustics class
with Sandi Miot, a Novato-based visual artist whose
work seeks “to make order out of chaos.” Lisa remembers
thinking, “This is fun! The techniques mimic printmaking.
Encaustics is a seductive medium: you build and
fuse, scratch through it, stick things in it... Of course,” she
adds, “once you start, challenges emerge. There’s technology
– heaters, tools, waxes, pigments. I still feel like I am
just beginning.”
Lisa teaches yoga classes and takes courses while
pursuing her encaustic work. “I understand now the
importance of ‘practices’ in my life. When I stick with it,
doors open, and I discover more ways to make something I
haven’t seen before.” Lisa also teaches occasional encaustic
classes at Racine’s in Fort Bragg.
Paris Map, 9"x12", textured encaustic on panel.
Lisa is a member of the Artists’ Co-op of Mendocino,
upstairs at the west end of Main Street, where doing the
gallery payroll makes her think about the business of art.
“What little business sense I have tells me that most artists
work out of devotion to our medium and some kind of
hope that someone will see our work, appreciate it, and
possibly even buy.
“In yoga terms, I see that my work comes in cycles. I
just finished a flurry of work to fill my wall at the gallery.
This weekend I’m assisting Rodney Yee, who is teaching
at the Yoga Journal Conference in San Francisco… and
I’m working through another intensive yoga program
with a teacher in New Mexico. Being pulled in so many
directions means that my time for art bounces around.
The constant is that I am always grateful when I get to
my studio. I am so happy when the wax melts and I can
continue the adventure.”
Lisa Orselli in her studio. Larry Wagner photos.
Spring 2012 9