ARTIST STATEMENT
My work has mostly been based in organic forms from nature. Lately however a Mother's worries about the world has subsumed my reverence and glorifying of the natural world. I wonder at the glorification of violence and the elements that inflict them. Thus, flowers, pods and crystals have grown guns, gas pumps, bullets and lipsticks as the proliferation of war implements flower in our American lifestyle.
All my work is about feminism and feminist imagery. As a woman, I feel to be honest and to have integrity I must reveal and discuss what I know. What I know is in the United States, guns seem to be flowering like weeds, with a reverence for brute force and a resistance to humanity. I believe the best I can do is to keep this conversation alive.
I use seduction and often humor as a way to get into the piece. Then I want the viewer to have the opportunity to think about a concept.
My attraction to nature never wavers. To see the blooming, the unfolding in nature and the coming forth of life, as well as the retreating, is a constant in my work. My desire is to embrace the life force, hope and strive for a better future and world.
I would like to thank E.G. Shempf who has beautifully documented and photographed my work for much of my career, and whose photographs of my work are contained within this website.
— Linda Lighton
BIO
Linda Lighton is an artist and activist living and working in Kansas City, Missouri. She is a passionate advocate for the arts both regionally, nationally and internationally, and she is committed to being creatively prolific and politically engaged on a daily basis.
Lighton has had more than 60 solo shows and has participated in more than 170 group exhibitions at museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Linda Lighton's work is in national and international collections in China, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan and Turkey as well as The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS; Ariana Museum, Geneva, Switzerland; Fule International Ceramic Museum, Fuping, China, the Yingee Museum in Taiwan, and Icheon International Ceramic Museum, Icheon, Korea.
In 2008, she was chosen for the Missouri Arts Award, and in 2011 she received the Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts and Education from the Kansas City Art Institute, where she graduated with honors in 1989. In 2016, Lighton received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the National Council for the Education of the Ceramic Arts. She is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics.
Lighton is a fervent arts advocate and activist. She has worked on many boards in her community; helping to instigate the One Percent for Arts Program in Kansas City, and serving on numerous boards over the years: Young Audiences of Kansas City, Friends of Art, Nelson Atkins Museum, Review Magazine, Kansas City Ballet, and National Council for the Education of the Ceramic Arts, Kansas City Jewish Museum Board. She currently serves on the National Committee at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and administers the Lighton International Artists Exchange Program.