The Sum of Its Parts

Lisa Beaman & Joseph Hammer

Austin, TX - Circles, squares, triangles, grids and lines - all are played and re-played in the dynamic works of Lisa Beaman and Joseph Hammer. Beaman, pulls from her 20 year experience as a master quilt artist. She works with found objects and antique papers to create both whimsical narratives with animals and characters while also creating introspective works regarding the human condition. Hammer loves history - you can tell the moment you become lost in his collages built from faces and spines of once-loved books. The stories emerge through his compositions and hint at adventures, mysteries and tales of old. His works create new stories as they live together in their newly arranged home. 

Lisa Beaman
Established herself as one of the leaders in the contemporary art quilt movement. Her quilt work was often representational and narrative, incorporating figures and objects to examine emotional ideas. As an artist with many sources of inspiration, she felt a need to change direction in 1998. Leaving the fabric medium behind, she began working with oils on canvas as well as paper construction. Lisa's work is characterized by a bold expression of subject matter. This manifests itself through a rich use of color and tone which helps to create the textural depth found in her painting. Beaman continues to explore all kinds of subject matter including figures, still life, animals, landscapes and abstract design in her paper collage. 

Joseph Hammer 
These pieces are from the heart. I'm a lover of books, and I wonder: will there be books as we now know them in the future? I'm partial to using old, discarded hardback books in collages and am inspired by the varieties of colors and textures on their covers, by how they can be used, like paint, to provoke feelings and emotions, to explore things such as line, color saturation and tension.