Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
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Lisa Schulte's years of experience have taught her to "see" in light: "You just have to keep doing it... Then you have the natural feel to shape things within you," says the neon artist, shown here with Untitled Wood Series #1 (2014). COVER, AT RIGHT: All Your Life You Were Only Waiting for This Moment to Arise (2015). After a freak accident in childhood, Lisa Schulte lost her sight for three months. It was a moment that shaped the rest of her life. "One doesn't take sight for granted when you get it back," says the 60-year-old artist. "It changed my sense of light." Now, as a visual artist known for her neon work, she's constantly surrounded by an electric glow. "Many artists take a stab at using neon, but only a few in the world are true experts," says Blair Clarke of New York's Voltz Clarke Gallery, which will mount an exhibition of Schulte's pieces this summer. Schulte is largely self-taught and came to neon through the event production industry—she had her own signage shop in Los Angeles, Nights of Neon, in the mid-'80s. "I just reached a point where I had so much experience in how glass works that I started creat- ing three-dimensional sculptures with neon," she says. These days, Schulte muses that she can literally "see" in neon—and she's helping the next generation see it too, by donating a work of art to be auctioned for the arts- mentoring nonprofit Free Arts NYC (freeartsnyc.org). "You just have to keep doing it, doing it, doing it," she says of her work. "Then you have the natural feel to shape things within you." "Summer Selections," an exhi- bition featuring Schulte's work, runs July 1–August 31 at Voltz Clarke Gallery, 141 E. 62nd St., Second Fl., 212- 933-0291; voltzclarke.com L I S A S C H U LT E THE NEON ARTIST IS TAKING A POP-CULTURE MEDIUM AND BENDING IT INTO SOMETHING ENTIRELY UNEXPECTED. BY KARI MOLVAR N E W YO R K CIT Y BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM 83