BIO
Lynn Sisler is a Northampton, Massachusetts-based artist whose work explores themes of artmaking as talismanic objects and processes. Drawing inspiration from girlhood artifacts, grief, and foraging the past for comfort and emotional shelter, she creates oil-based paintings with an affinity for square panels. Sisler’s work has been exhibited nationally, and her work is in numerous national and international private collections. She received the prestigious Hildreth Family MFA Scholar Award and the Hale Residency at the Artist Association of Nantucket. Lynn Sisler currently teaches as an adjunct in the Visual Arts Departments at Holyoke Community and Springfield Technical Community Colleges. She is currently working on a new series exploring storytelling through animal and floral lore, Carl Jung’s animal archetypes, and image-making through shamanic meditation.
STATEMENT
I create oil paintings with an affinity for square panels, beginning with a colored ground and drawing the composition in white pencil. From there, I paint the resulting shapes, layering color and pattern to evoke an ever-present energy that hums just beneath the surface. My compositions often center around an animal—rabbits, birds, deer, horses—surrounded by floral motifs that recall camouflage or wallpaper. The flowers adorn the animals, and the animals, in turn, eulogize the flowers in a quiet, symbiotic exchange. Where shapes overlap, I highlight their intersections. My work is frequently described as whimsical and surreal, with a palette ranging from vibrant to subdued, chosen intuitively and emotionally.
I forage through fragments of my life and past to catch glimpses of my own psyche. As a child, I was surrounded by stuffed animals, model horses, and my beloved cat, Stormy. I spent hours curled up in an oversized green chair, reading about the natural world and fiction featuring personified animals, such as Felix Salten’s Bambi. I drew animal characters, crafting stories from the sanctuary of my bedroom. Animals and nature offered me friendship, connection, and a deep sense of belonging. I felt safe. I felt true to myself.
My artistic practice responds to life’s profundities—love, loss, connection, and memory. The decline and passing of my father brought me face-to-face with mortality. In the midst of grief, I searched for ancestral ties, beauty, and a sense of both protection and being protected. I began revisiting the emotional terrain of my girlhood, foraging the past for comfort and emotional shelter.
I’m influenced by the natural world, lore, scientific illustrations, folk art, and personal artifacts that stir memory and emotional resonance. I’m drawn to the spaces where humans and other species share ancient, unseen bonds. Within a set of self-imposed, ever-evolving rules—colored grounds, white pencil, repeated forms—I’ve discovered a ritualized way of working that allows repetition to become a spell, a pattern, an intention. Patterns are interrupted, imperfect, and become the vessel through which we receive and interpret meaning. Recurring dreams, animal messengers, coincidences or synchronicities, natural phenomena, and totems translate into personal mythologies, iconographies, and belief systems.
The paintings act as disparate parts of a narrative—a story that never settles, always transforming, unfolding in unexpected ways. Rather than offering definitive answers, they raise questions. What is remembered, and what is imagined? What do we mourn, and what do we carry forward? These visual folktales, populated by the creatures of my childhood, reflect vulnerability, femininity, and a longing for refuge. The paintings have become my protectors—my talismans—each encapsulating a moment within an ethereal, shifting landscape where memory and imagination continually converse and are hauntingly familiar.
CV
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2021 Maine College of Art and Design, M.F.A. Interdisciplinary Studies, Portland, ME
2005 Walden University, MS-ed in Reading and Literacy, Minneapolis, MN
1991 Northern Illinois University, B.F.A. in Painting. Minor, Art History, DeKalb, IL
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2025 Rituals and Talismans. Grubbs Gallery, Willison Northampton, Easthampton, MA
2024 Beautiful Remnants (with Sarah Steedman). Elizabeth Moss Gallery, Falmouth, ME
2017 Ocean Life-Force; An Artist’s Exploration of Halcyon Days. Elusie Gallery, Easthampton, MA
Migration Stories, revisited. Art Stop, New England Public Radio, Springfield, MA
2016 Migration Stories and Other Curious Lore. ECA+ Gallery, Easthampton, MA
2013 The Book of Saints. The Cube Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2011 Portraits. Farm to Loft Pop-Up Gallery Decatur, GA
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2026
Critters. Curated by Nancy Davidson. George Marshall Store Gallery, York, ME
Collect. Maine College of Art and Design. ICA Gallery, Portland, ME
2025
Curated by Collector. dk Gallery, Marietta, GA
Flock. Elizabeth Moss Gallery, Falmouth, ME
Secrets. Elusie Gallery, Easthampton, MA
Collect. Maine College of Art and Design. ICA Gallery, Portland, ME
Tell Me a Story. dk Gallery, Marietta, GA
Critters. Curated by Nancy Davidson. Cove Street Gallery, Portland, ME
2024 A Different Perspective. Arundel Farm Gallery, Arundel, ME
Dog Days of Summer: Animal Companions in Art. Arundel Farm Gallery, Arundel, ME
Collect. Maine College of Art and Design. ICA Gallery, Portland, ME
2023 Littles. Elizabeth Moss Gallery, Falmouth, ME
Sourced: Origins of Inspiration. Springfield College Fine Arts Gallery, Springfield, MA
As Luck Would Have It. 13 Forest Gallery, Arlington, MA
Collect. Maine College of Art and Design. ICA Gallery, Portland, ME
2022 Part-time Faculty Show. Zuckerman Museum, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA
Winter Works, Bromfield Gallery, Boston, MA
2021 MFA Thesis Exhibition. ICA Gallery, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME
Urgent Unity, Unprecedented Healing, You and Me Gallery, Greenfield, MA
2020 Post-Pause. Online, Easthampton, MA
Project Project: Be Seen Initiative. Congress Square Park, Portland, ME
Love Your Beautiful Neighbor. Elusie Gallery, Easthampton, MA
2019 Northampton Arts Council Biennial. Forbes Library, Northampton, MA
2018If Water Could Speak. Hope and Feathers Gallery, Amherst, MA
2017Changing Shape. MAEA Member’s Exhibition. Student Union Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
While Art is Still Legal; Art in the Age of Trump. Elusie Gallery, Easthampton, MA
2016 IS 183 Art School of the Berkshires Faculty Show. Williamstown, MA
2015 7th Annual Small Works Show. ECA+ Gallery, Easthampton, MA
Open Studios. One Cottage Street Studios, Easthampton, MA
Grand Opening. Greenfield Gallery, Greenfield, MA
A Celebration of Birds. MAC 650 Gallery, Middletown, CT
Passages. Verum Ultimum Gallery, Portland, OR
Telephone. Satellite Collective, Online Exhibition, Brooklyn, NY
2013 Animals. Light, Space, and Time Online Gallery
2012Recent Paintings; Kelly Enzor and Lynn Sisler. Atlanta, GA1996 Local Artists. Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center, Atlanta, GA
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2021 Above and Beyond Grant, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME
2020 Hildreth Family MFA Endowed Scholar, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME
Wild Roof Journal, Issue 2, Online Publication
Cover Art; Coyote Song. Silkworm 13: The Annual Review of the Florence Poet’s Society. Florence, MA
2019-20 Albert K. Murray Fine Art Educational Fund. Six-time recipient. Adamsville, OH
2013 Animals Art Exhibition, Special Merit Award. www.lightspacetime.com
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2026 Bold Journey Interview
2023 Daily Hampshire Gazette. Tiny Art 4 All Gallery Project pops up along Rail Trail in Florence.
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2024 Hale Master of Fine Art; Artist in Residence. Artist Association of Nantucket, Massachusetts
Throwing on the Wheel, Stonington Community Center, Stonington, Connecticut
2023 La Meridiana; The Shape of the Earth ceramic workshop with Eddie Curtis, Tuscany, Italy
2021 Artist Association of Nantucket; Artist in Residence, Nantucket Island, Massachusetts
2018 Rhode Island School of Design, Children’s Book Illustration, Providence, RI
2011 Cook in France; Artist in Residence, St. Amand de Coly, France
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2023 Squirrel Shrine. Tiny Art 4 All Gallery, Northampton, MA
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2025-pr Adjunct Faculty Visual Arts, Holyoke Community College, Holyoke, MA
Adjunct Faculty, Visual Arts, Springfield Technical Community College, Springfield, MA
2024 Cambridge Artist Association, Online Courses, Cambridge, MA
Continuing Studies, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME
2022-24 Adjunct Faculty Visual Arts, Springfield College, Springfield, MA
2021-24 Adjunct Faculty Graduate Level online platform, Art of Education University, Osage, IA
2021-22 Adjunct Faculty Visual Arts, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA
2020 Teaching Assistant, Online platform. Maine College of Art, Portland, ME
2016-20 Art Teacher, Mosier Elementary School, South Hadley, MA
2016 Art Instructor, IS 183 Art School of the Berkshires, Stockbridge, MA
2014-15 Summer Camp Art Director and Instructor, Venetian Swim Club, Decatur, GA
2005-13 Academic Elementary School Teacher, City Schools of Decatur, Decatur, GA
2002-05 Academic Elementary School Teacher, Gwinnett County Schools, Lilburn, GA
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Artist-in-Business certificate. Arts Extension Service through the Arts Entrepreneurship Initiative, Greenfield Community College, Greenfield, MA
College Art Association (CAA), New York, NY
Easthampton City Arts (ECA+), Easthampton, MA
Foundations in Art: Theory and Education (FATE), Columbus, OH
Massachusetts Art Education Association (MAEA), Boston, MA
National Art Education Association (NAEA), Alexandria, VA
Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), Los Angeles, CA