ART BIO
Blake Lannon has been painting since her early years. She was influenced by a nun, Sister Corita Kent. Sister Corita was a powerful influence to many women artists in Los Angeles. She taught at the Immaculate Heart High School and College and made people aware of the injustices to women and to the wars in the world.
Blake had her first shows in Los Angeles in the 70’s. One was at the newly opened important Women’s Building, another at the Los Angeles Art Against AIDS exhibition. She continued painting for a gallery in L.A.while raising a family.
After moving her studio to New York City in the 80s she pursued painting along with working with AIDs patients. She then entered the museum world as a museum store buyer for many years. The New York Sculpture Center and SWATCH hired her to participate in events at the United Nations relating to the arts and and conservation of the earth.
Her new work began with abstact landscapes. The paintings addressed visual clues regarding ancient landscapes, standing stones, reflecting her continuing concerns for the sustainability of the earth. She was inspired by the political events of the time i.e. the breaking down of the Berlin Wall, Civil Rights, and the Women’s Movement, all reflected in vast changes in the art world. Blake’s concerns have also been inspired by David Maisel’s photography: Black Maps. As Natasha Egan said, “Eliciting anxiety in the presence of the sublime.” Many collectors took her work to their collections during these years. Blake was commissioned by collectors in Europe and Asia and America. She was also hired to purchase art for people who did not know the art market and took them to Art Fairs around the world offering to show them what was interesting at that time period in the 1980s.
After moving back to California, her concentration centered on the destructive treatment and lack of care for the earth. She chose to express these feelings in the production of some intimate abstracts which reflect a more individual and personal vision.
Blake’s is still concerned with empathy for those who are suffering from war, immigration and abuse. The work is strong in color and subtle in message. The newest work mostly done in Mexico is to a tribute materially and spiritually to people in the world who at the present suffer the heartbreak of immigration and death and war with no place to be safe Her work offers hope and beauty for all.
The work is available in San Miguel Allende, Mexico or in California.
You are welcome to reach her through her email : blakelannon@gmail.com