Articles
Finding Family, 21c Museum, 2007
Curated by Karen Gillenwater, Curator, Carnigie Museum, IN
The New DuPrees, 1976 by Lisa DuPree is based on a photograph taken by DuPree’s father shortly after he married her mother and adopted her oldest sister. Since families are social in nature rather than merely biological, they grow through a variety of means. Typically, as with the DuPrees, family members celebrate a loved one finding meaningful new relationships in any way; however, when new family members differ in socio-economic class, religion, sexual orientation, or race, they are not always so easily accepted. While the creation of greater diversity within families can cause tension, any addition to a family presents the opportunity for new positive relationships and personal growth.
In the work Daniel’s Grandma, DuPree documents the changing role of a grandparent within a family. Once caretaker, this grandmother is now cared for by her children and grandchildren. The photograph upon which the work is based was taken as she shyly covered her face after her daughter fixed her hair and makeup. When need requires that family members’ roles change in ways such as children caring for their parents or grandparents raising their grandchildren, others sometimes look at them as being unfortunate. DuPree shows the alternate side of this by documenting an event in which the family grew closer through their changing roles.
Celebrating Women, Louisville Kentucky, 2005
Curated by Maiza Hixson, Assistant Curator, Contemporary Art Center, OH
In DuPree’s work, the artist unites the photographic medium with the traditional craft of embroidery. Intricate and time-consuming, her piece is created by laying thread onto adhesive paper to recreate a photograph. This unique process reveals how snapshots, though quickly taken, can leave behind a lasting image that carries the weight of memory into the present. DuPree’s clever method of reproduction signifies a continual formation of history long after the camera’s shutter closes. As it images the past with string, it calls into question the ability for the camera to capture certain truths about people, places and things. On a personal level, the work becomes an investigation of the relationship between the artist’s sister and mother, as portrayed in the image.
Solo Show, Works In Fiber, Frankfort Kentucky, 2004
Larry W. Moore, The State Journal, KY
The exhibit includes seven “paintings in fiber” that DuPree creates by gluing embroidery thread to acid-free paper, building up her images one strand at a time in a process that she artist herself admits takes, “a vast and ridiculous amount of frustrating work” and that Broadstone curator, Larry W. Moore describes appreciatively as, “insane!”
The technique, which DuPree developed independently, produces jewel-like works rich in both texture and detail. As she notes in her artist’s statement, “It is, perhaps, in the mundane, the everyday and ordinary where true beauty goes unnoticed and overlooked. Executing an image in thread allows me to show, in detail, what I hold to be among the finest beauties I know, even if they may seem ordinary upon first glance. I do the work that I do as a tribute to the beauty I’ve found in the picture or idea I work from. The outcome from this intense labor is usually so exciting, thrilling, and elating, it makes every bit of the frustrating process easily worth it.”