Culture
Cleveland’s Lisa Quine to Display Work at Arts West April 1-25
By: Emily Votaw
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Not many can say their professional career stems directly from doodling lyrics in the margins of their high school notebooks, but not many people are artist Lisa Quine. Quine is a celebrated Cleveland-based artist, designer, and muralist whose work will be on display in the lower gallery of Arts West (132 West State Street, Athens) April 4 through April 25.
“It all started back when I was in high school, and alternative rock was really popular. I started to draw lyrics in my notebooks, not even knowing what typography was, and it was a great outlet for me to express myself,” said Quine in an interview with WOUB Public Media. “When I started college, I knew I wanted to study art, but I also wanted to be practical about it, so I got into graphic design and typography. By the time I graduated, I had a job in advertising doing graphic design and art direction on a computer. So I would do that all day, and when I came home at night, I found that I was still craving to express myself.”
Shortly after graduating from college she moved into a studio apartment in downtown Cleveland and started lettering lyrics after work, just as she had as a teenager. Soon, friends and family began commissioning her to create typography, and from there grew Quine’s creative business.
In November of 2018, Quine was selected as the Cleveland artist to contribute to a mural in Cleveland’s longtime sister city, Rouen, France with French artists Idem and Mozaik.
“The two other artists didn’t speak English, and I don’t speak French, so we were communicating over Google translate, basically,” said Quine. “But we still came up with a collaborative piece, the theme of which was ‘all colors are beautiful.’ It was a really fun experience, and I was very excited for the project.”
Quine’s mural work is all over Cleveland, notably the “Dream Big” mural in Gordon Square and the mural in Eliot’s Bar in the downtown Hilton Hotel.
So far as the work that will be on display at Arts West, Quine said that a good portion of the pieces come from a show that she did in Nashville last year which focused on quotes from various women who have inspired her. In addition to those pieces, Quine will also have a few lyric-based typography pieces in the exhibition.
“I wanted to go back to my high school and college roots and use the lyrics from the songs that I listened to on repeat in that part of my life,” she said. “It’s the same concept as some of my past pieces, but with more detail, and they’re more expanded. I love art shows because it’s all personal work, passion projects. I am also interested in using vintage lettering and merging that with my love of song lyrics.”