From stage to studio: Lisa Needham’s journey from theater to visual art

PARK CITY, Utah — While Lisa Needham grew up in a home with an art studio, she always considered herself a theater person, having earned a BFA in Musical Theater/Acting. From theater performances to film, Lisa Needham had an active theater career. How did she become one of Create PC’s emerging artists?

When she and her husband Rich became empty nesters, they started a side project they had discussed for years, performing as a duo. “We did that, and just the power between the two of us and the excitement this new project generated…,” Lisa smiles, “we got a gig opening for the Gipsy Queens on their three-week tour through the Northeast and Canada. We started working with a manager. It just exploded.”

She kept journals with spoken word poetry that she incorporated into art journals. Needham wanted to expand her visual artwork, so she looked for more studio space and found Create PC. She got on the waitlist and joined when a studio space became available six months ago.

Interacting with the other artists at the studio allows her to focus on her painting and mixed media. She saw her skills improve quickly. “The first piece I ever sold was a print I’d made that I planned to cut up for collage. Sherry Elshaug stopped me, ‘I don’t think you should touch that, put a frame on it and put it down in the gallery.’ It sold within a few weeks!”

Her mother was a printmaker who made her own paper, so Lisa had access to art supplies from an early age. She dabbled in quilt making and many crafts. She never took formal art classes. “I wish I had taken those classes, but I couldn’t sit still long enough for somebody to say: “We’re doing still life for the next hour. Are you serious? I’m not sitting here drawing a bowl of fruit. I just couldn’t do it,” remembers Lisa.

She loves combining painting and paper arts. When her mother passed away two years ago, she inherited her studio equipment. Lisa Needham discovered Gelli printing. Her images are a mixture of carefully chosen papers she printed on and painting to find the connection between them. When she discovered acrylic markers, her artwork changed again.

Tragedy struck a few months ago when her son died. She created dark art pieces but, in retrospect, was surprised to find that one of her most intricate bright artworks also came out of the few months after his death. It is a larger version of her doodling-type drawing and painting on a canvas.

The Create PC Gallery is the first gallery in which she has displayed her work. She looks forward to presenting her artwork at the Wine Festival on April 4 from 1 – 4 p.m. and at the Miners 9 exhibit at the Miners Hospital at the end of April.

Lisa Needham now finds herself following in her mother’s footsteps, working with paper and painting. Not having had formal visual art training, she is looking forward to a three-day art workshop in Sacramento in June.