Lisa Bourque

Lisa Bourque is an emerging artist currently living in Edmonton, Alberta. Working primarily in oil painting, she seeks to explore her own experiences with loss and the grief that follows. Her self portraits and still life paintings explore an alternate world that she has created, with alien-like figures exploring and interacting with seemingly mundane hoarded objects in a way that makes them seem almost sublime. Her works have recently been shown in the CARFAC artWORK/netWORK exhibition in Edmonton, as well as at the New York Academy of Art summer residency exhibition in New York City. 

Artist Statement

My work primarily takes on the form of self portraits; yet I seek to separate these figures from myself and instead think of them as my creations, or my children. Each iteration of this figure expands the world that I have created, and allows them to exist however they like in their unique settings. They are each surrounded by their own stories, their own experiences, and their own relationships with the objects and clutter that surround them. My work speaks to my own background involving loss and object attachment, and the complicated feelings that come with mourning things that never lived. In my paintings I try to place everything in a scene to resemble a set, as if you’ve walked in on an intimate moment unintended to be viewed by human eyes. The surroundings in each scene are composed of cluttered personal household objects, displayed in a manner that makes them appear deliberate and cosmic. As these objects are placed, their original uses and intentions are forgotten; instead their purpose is to be viewed alongside their figurative counterparts. For me, I yearn for these objects; everyday items that you’ve owned for much of your life without noticing their existence. The figures in my pieces possess these, yet they’re unsure of how to interact with them as they come from two different worlds.

Snake Eyes, 40×48”, oil over acrylic on canvas

Colossal Horror, 15 x 15″, Oil over acrylic on canvas, 2022

Resuscitate, 40×48″ , Oil over acrylic on canvas, 2022

Two Player Game, 15 x 15″, Oil over acrylic on canvas, 2021

Blue Joys, 48 x 40″, Oil over acrylic on canvas, 2021

ig: @lisabrque