ABOUT

“An unexpectedly powerful element of my work is how dynamic it plays in changing light... the radiating kinetic shadows are truly mesmerizing.”

D’lisa Creager is an artist who was raised in Fullerton, California.  Her creative career began when her kindergarten painting of Apollo 7 was selected for national exhibition.  This small event so many years ago set her off on a creative journey that would last a lifetime.  After graduating from Fullerton High School with the Class of ’77, D’lisa went to the University of Southern California and earned her Ph.D. in Social Psychology.  This was followed by a move to Galveston, Texas and a long career with the University of Texas.  After retiring, she returned to southern California.  Her passion for art would lead her to sculpting with wire, from small ornaments and to very large pieces that hang from the ceiling.  Big and small, the technique she uses has been around for thousands of years. 

The sculptures she creates are made with fine copper wire using a method commonly known as the “Viking knit” or “knotless knitting”.  This ancient wire weaving method was once used by the Nordics to create exquisite ornamentation.  Since Nordic times, cultures around the world have used this and similar techniques to produce everything from fine jewelry to storage vessels.  Such was the case with villagers in Toluca, Mexico in the 1940’s who taught Ruth Asawa how to make baskets out of wire.  Those baskets evolved into the Ruth Asawa hanging basket sculptures so admired for their simple shapes and modern form to this day.  

D’lisa learned this wire looping technique from the daughter of Ruth Asawa, Aiko Cuneo, who led a workshop at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles in 2007.  At that workshop, she was instantly captivated and inspired.  The unique combination of robust structural properties and soft pliability make copper wire a truly fascinating artistic medium. The workshop demonstrated how interlocking wire loops can be woven into simple single layer forms.  Upon mastering the process, D’lisa envisioned using this same simple looping technique to create much more complex, large scale hanging wire sculptures with mind-bending properties.
​
What initially started as a hobby, began to spread when her work was shared with a Los Angeles gallery owner.  Since that time, her sculptures have garnered the attention of a multitude of galleries, designers, auction houses, and well-known publications. A long list of public and private commissions have been installed around the globe. Today she enjoys her retirement while fostering a fateful art business that grew from her passion.  Her current conceptual exploration and technique development efforts strive to achieve new levels of intricacy and complexity in a way that visually attracts and invigorates.