LISA LICHTENFELS (Philadelphia, USA, Present)"Lia Lu La toy and hosty", 2006.Nylon and felt sculpture.Signed, dated and titled.Size: 58 x 22 x 20 cm.Lisa Lichtenfels studied traditional oil painting at an early age, attended Governor's School as a teenager and continued her education at the Philadelphia College of Art. There she met Judy Jampell, who was becoming known for her softly sculpted three-dimensional facades. Inspired, Lisa was going to be an illustrator until the prospect of independent animation and film fascinated her. Graduating with majors in Illustration and Film, she was immediately hired by Disney Studios as an apprentice animator.While working at Disney, she developed three-dimensional figurines with articulated skeletons for stop-motion animation. Like Judy Jampell's constructions, they had nylon socks. Lisa left Disney to explore the potential of these techniques, hoping to return to animation in about a year; but more than twenty-five years have passed, and she is still working in nylon and feels she has only just begun to realise what is possible in the medium.Lisa works in the studio of her Victorian home in Springfield, Massachusetts. There she creates strikingly realistic sculptures with a wide variety of subjects, including fantasy, myth, humour and portraiture.These sculptures and installations have been sold directly, through agents and galleries, to collectors around the world.