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North County Times

November 25, 2008

Temecula: Local woman's photographs on display at Smithsonian

By Shari Crall, for The Californian

Lissa Corona

For Lissa Corona of Temecula, surviving Ewing's Sarcoma - a rare disease in which cancer cells are found in the bone or in soft tissue - led to a desire to leave something meaningful behind in this world.

Recently recognized with 15 other artists with an Award of Excellence for "Green Light," the largest awards program for emerging visual artists in the country, her work is on display at the Smithsonian Institution through Jan. 4. She was recently honored with a reception on Capitol Hill.

"Art has provided me the opportunity to leave behind a legacy. Whether my contributions to society are great or minute, I develop my work in an effort to provide a link for the future to my past," Corona said.

© 2007 Lissa Corona, Epilogue 4, digital print (30” x 20”)

The awards program and Smithsonian exhibition occurs annually, providing financial support and showcasing the work of artists at a crucial point in their careers. This year's theme challenged artists to think about the motivation behind their work - what gives them a "green light" in their lives and their work.

Corona's two photographs, titled "Epilogue 3" and "Epilogue 4," are part of a larger body of work dealing with her fear of not being able to leave something meaningful behind and by extension, who decides what is "meaningful" enough to define a legacy.

Corona said relationships developed during her treatment that were cut short due to cancer, left her with a certain amount of survivor's guilt.

"Faced with understanding your time would not be as long as you had thought," Corona said of the disease that was discovered during her time at Temecula Valley High School, "there's an urgency to accomplish as soon as possible. I wrestle with that on a daily basis - whether or not I am doing enough."

Holding a BFA from the University of California, San Diego, and a MFA from the University of Pennsylvania, Corona continues to feel driven to "take on the world." Initially, Corona said, her art served more as an outlet for herself, to process her experiences.

"As I have matured not just as a person, but as an artist, my work progressed from self to communication," Corona said. "I believe my work serves an attempt at establishing a relationship with the viewer based on shared experiences, in an effort to understand what it means to be human - to get them to ask questions they had not thought about and cared about before in the greater human experience."

She hopes her art creates a relative experience between herself and the viewer; that her audience will find something to connect to in the image and ask questions they had not "thought about and cared about before in the greater human experience."

It is just such a process VSA arts and Volkswagen Group of America hopes to validate and encourage through sponsorship of the competition.

"Facing the disaster of cancer in high school," Soula Antoniou, president of VSA arts, said of Corona, "she showed an incredible example, but common example, of how resilient the human spirit is. Lissa adapted. She created a life for herself. Adaptablility is what is inherent in the disability experience."

Antoniou continued saying the goal of the VSA awards program encompassed both impact on the artists and on the community.

"Arts are a great way to deal with one's disability," Antoniou said. "There are no rules. That process is instrumental in that adapting and progress that helps to change the course of a life in a positive and meaningful way. Then we also want the get the audience to have an 'ah ha' moment. To change society's perception about disabilities through arts and helping create equality, changing society's view of disability."

Indeed, it was significant to Lissa her photographs were selected on the basis of the work alone, and not in deference to a disability.

"I felt privileged to be part of such an inspirational group of artists," Corona said. "It was really humbling and felt rewarding. The exhibition was beautifully done."

Sponsored by VSA arts, an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1974 by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith to create a society where people with disabilities learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts and Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.,the "Green Light" exhibition will tour college and university galleries for two years following its initial showing at the Smithsonian Institution.

Corona's work is also currently on exhibit with the show, "Concerning the Changing Landscape." The exhibition will be on display through Dec. 5,from 7-10 p.m. at Bixel@5th Lofts, 1311 W. 5th St., Los Angeles. Call (213) 250-1500.

To see Lissa Corona's work on line at "Green Light", click here. To see more entries in the "Green Light" juried exhibition of emerging artists with disabilities, click here.