Butterfly Spheres

Lissalei is an Sicilian born artist living in Australia. Her work is well known on a number of online art sites and has an international following. On one hand, her work could be called outsider art-self taught, not part of any traditional art community, work that often carries a strong social concern-but on the other, having honed her skills by studying nature and the works of artists like John Godward and John Fitzgerald, she aptly shows a skillful eye and a contemporary spirit that deeply respects the masters.

She moved from oils and pastels to working in porcelain, which she quickly mastered; but a devastating accident made working in porcelain difficult, and seven years ago she turned her attentions to digital art. Most of the works in Butterfly Spheres are digital. This collection avoids her more outsider-like art, mainly because it was created at relatively low, monitor resolutions and because it doesn't show off her sense of color, shape and rhyme, let alone her skills, as much as these do.

Butterfly Spheres is one of her better known images. Curiously, she had never seen any work by Joseph Cornell, to whom Butterfly Spheres could easily be an homage, when she made it. It is this sense of discovery, evolving style, and exploration that makes her work so appealing.

Thirty-six images, 42 pages. Paper, 8 x 10.