BIOGRAPHY - Vanessa Lemen (Born 1970)

Vanessa Lemen is an award-winning painter who lives and works in Carlsbad, CA. Her work has been shown in galleries and exhibitions internationally and is in private collections internationally, and Rehs Contemporary Galleries in NYC represent her. With eight paintings exclusively published in the new Illustrated Limited Edition of The Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin (Easton Press/MBI, Inc) released in 2018, her work has also been published in such art books as Spectrum, Women of Wonder, The Journal, and Infected By Art.

Her paintings are featured in American Art Collector, ImagineFX, and Poets And Artists, and she writes monthly columns for the Muddy Colors blog. Vanessa has been interviewed by The Dark Art Society podcast, One Fantastic Week webcast, and the Everyday Artist podcast. Her recent work has earned her The Chesley Award and other awards in publications such as Infected By Art and Art Renewal Center's ARC Salon and participation in the International ARC Salon Exhibition.

Described through metaphorical imagery, it's excerpted from her personal journey and reflection that she credits most as the inspiration for her work, and rolling with the unexpected as the very nature of her process. Much like the spontaneity of a dialog, the marks on the surface are what evoke a response and then a discovery and a possibility of something new to form. Each piece she creates seems to come from a chaos, and in it, she is able to create a place of reflection and curiosity, a balance of the deep-seated and the unknown, with areas of rest and of movement that intertwine to form a calm amid the chaos.