Characters in Need of a Story

Published on October 24, 2025

Artist

Lisa Rose, M.F.A.

Exhibition Description

In Characters in Need of a Story, Albany artist Lisa Rose invites viewers into a world of vivid, imaginative personalities created through drawing and mixed media. Her expressive and theatrical figures seem to exist mid-narrative—waiting for the stories that viewers will invent for them.

Spanning two decades of Rose’s artistic practice, the exhibition brings together works that explore gesture, emotion, and the subtle choreography of relationships.

Artist Statement

“I give the viewer characters; the viewer creates stories,” writes Rose. “My interest lies in the dialogue between image and imagination—where characters, relationships, and narratives emerge. My practice is rooted in drawing and printmaking, combining analog and digital methods, informed by my years working in both the commercial and fine-art world.”

About the Artist

Lisa Rose holds both an M.F.A. and B.F.A. from Disney’s California Institute of the Arts, where she focused on film, animation, theater, and integrated media. Her four-decade career as artist, educator, engineer, and designer spans both industry and education, including Apple® (where she created the company’s first animated film produced entirely on its own hardware using software that evolved into Adobe® After Effects®), Adobe®, Sun Microsystems™, Symantec™, and Telemundo®.

She has taught at the University of California, the State University of New York, and multiple California Community Colleges. Her work has been exhibited at institutions including the Whitney Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and for the Los Angeles Society of Illustrators at Comic-Con.

A long-time Albany resident, Rose continues to develop characters, stories, and conversations between artist and viewer.

Artwork Details

Title: Untitled
Medium: Mixed digital and analog media on paper
Dimensions: 8” x 10”
Copyright: © Lisa Rose 2020
Website: ljroseOnline.com