After dedicating much of her life to teaching, Lisa Salazar is now establishing herself as an artist. Salazar retired from her teaching position in 2022 and decided to focus on her art, painting whenever she had the opportunity. She set up dedicated spaces for her work in her home and camper, allowing her to hone her skills quickly. As her talent became known, people began commissioning her for custom pet portraits and photographs. yuh
“Animals are one of my favourite things to paint,” said Salazar. “And I can’t get away from being realistic, being exact.”
Salazar’s paintings reflect a realism style, capturing even the finest details, like a dog’s whiskers. Recently, she has expanded her artistry by using recycled materials for her creations. Whether it’s an old pallet board, saw blade, stump, rock, or small piece of wood, she finds joy in painting on these surfaces. Salazar committed to dedicating time each day to her art. Although she felt unsure about what it means to “be an artist,” she embraced the learning journey. Since making this decision, she has created a website, set prices for her work, designed business cards, and started exhibiting her pieces in galleries. Her first exhibition took place at the Cre8ery Gallery and Studio in Winnipeg’s Exchange District. Each time she sold a piece there, she replaced it with another, accomplishing this four times during her initial showing. Salazar currently has another exhibition at the gallery, showcasing larger paintings, which will be on display until January 24, 2025. During the holidays, Salazar also exhibited her work at the Golden Prairie Arts Council (GPAC) in Carman. After the exhibition, GPAC referred her to the Wee Care Child Center for a mural project. Salazar embraced the opportunity to create a mural for a 31-foot wall inside the childcare center. Merging fantasy and realism, she depicted a scene with unicorns, castles, various modes of transport, and dinosaurs. The mural features boats floating on lakes, a sky filled with balloons, jets, and geese, as well as the Winnipeg cityscape and a farm scene complete with animals, a combine, a grain cart, a tractor, and a pickup truck. The mural also includes expansive fields, a large forest teeming with small woodland creatures, and a night sky illuminated by colorful northern lights.
In total, the project took Salazar 88 hours, each of those completed during the evening or weekend when the daycare wasn’t being used. She said learning to use the latex paint for the mural was the most challenging part of the process since she’d only painted walls with it before. Most of the paint and materials for the centre’s mural were paid for with a grant from Carman Dufferin Communities in Bloom.
Every time she added to the mural, the children at the center eagerly studied it the next day, pointing out each change and asking questions about the artwork’s details. Salazar found joy in watching their interactions with her work.
“As an artist, you always beat yourself up,” said Salazar. “At 88 hours, I had to be like, ‘OK, I’ve got to stop.’”
She spent her last few hours on the mural, adding tiny details like insects in the trees to make the wall as interactive and as educational for the children as possible. She said she re-painted the small dog’s face at least three times before she was happy with how it looked.
“You see imperfections as an artist and you just hope it brings everyone else joy.”
