Lisa Beard

Lisa Beard Headshot Lisa Beard is a Chicago-area-based artist and teacher. She entered into photography with an interest in documenting and researching abandoned spaces and what was left behind within them. From that early work, she eventually had two books published: Abandoned Illinois: Secrets Behind the Spaces and Abandoned Illinois: Forgotten Places and Lost Histories. She soon started working more conceptually and incorporated her interests by creating The Yellow Glove Series, which was her first body of exhibited work. Her artwork has continued to be photo-based and has expanded through a unique experimental and intuitive creative process that involves trial and error while using hand-based creative photo-based techniques developed specifically for each project in an attempt to bring form and subject matter into relation with one another.

Her most recent work is largely focused on the constant and fluctuating change that makes up life and connects all things. It is concerned with the complexities of being alive and touches on truth, memory, and reality through a lens of what insists through layers of time for us individually but also collectively. Her work has been featured in galleries, universities, and museums in both group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally, and she holds degrees in English, Psychology, and Educational Leadership as well as an MFA in Media Arts (Nov. ’22) from Maine Media College in Rockport, ME.

Sea Song, 2023 - By Lisa Beard — “Sea Song” (2023), XYZZY, Archival Pigment Inkjet Print : This is a photograph made from hand-coded and hand-cut layers of different variations of the same source photograph.

Living Urn, 2020 - By Lisa Beard — “Living Urn” (2020), Records, 12″ Record Album Cover Jacket : This is a photographic object made from the pairing of two photographs – one straight and one of a torn up photograph re-photographed and then cut and glued “tip-on” style to create the album covers “A” and “B” sides.

Pink + White, 2023 - By Lisa Beard — “Pink + White” (2023), XYZZY, Archival Pigment Inkjet Print : This is a photograph made from hand-coded and hand-cut layers of different variations of the same source photograph.

The Wedding March, 2016 - By Lisa Beard — “The Wedding March” (2016), The Yellow Glove Series, Archival Pigment Inkjet Print

A Forest, 2021 - By Lisa Beard — “A Forest” (2021), Disappearing Digital Stereograph : This is a photograph made from a combination of a Polaroid transparency and another photograph projected through it. These are viewed on a cell phone screen using a pair of stereoscopic viewing goggles that can be clipped onto it.

Thirteen, 2022 - By Lisa Beard — “Thirteen” (2022), Portraits, Archival Pigment Inkjet Print on Pearlized Paper : This is a photograph made from a combination of an image transfer of a photograph with a found vintage book cover.

All images copyright Lisa Beard.

Upcoming Workshops taught by Lisa Beard

Making Photographs from Photographs: Creative Methods to Enhance your Visual Voice

Certificate & Degree Programs

Workshops

Life at Maine Media

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Equity & Inclusion

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Upcoming Workshops taught by Lisa Beard