Professor of Art at Bauhaus University, Dessau

As professor for art at the University of Bauhaus in Dessau, she taught students of architecture 1997 until 2005. In her courses, she continues her explorations in nature and in silence (to be found in monasteries in Sicily) with students by letting them do projects within a certain space e.g. a canyon at the bottom of which runs a river. The moment a bridge is added or some tents along the river bank, space is altered. This experimental approach to changes affecting a landscape can be easily linked to the concerns of geographers and cultural anthropologist. Unfortunately a lot of negative things are happening to cultural landscapes throughout the world.

For instance Theano Terkenli, Professor at the University of the Aegean and expert on cultural landscapes, emphasizes that only few people acknowledge that their interactions with any piece of land will alter the landscape. That can relate as well to the activities of ecospace artists who wish to address climate change as a world wide issue.

Lisa Stybor is aware about these issues and related artistic activities but her prime concern is to communicate to students a sense of aesthetics. She is of the opinion that they should not relinquish their artistic aspiration. That means they should try to express something truthful within a given space and time.

An example of this approach can be taken from her after thoughts after having given following course:

DRAWING INSIDE/OUTSIDE - After-thoughts

Workshop 7.-11.02.05 by students of landscapes and Prof. Lisa M. Stybor, Hochschule Anhalt in Dessau, Germany ( follower of the BAUHAUS-School )

This workshop was about to develop and refine perception, phantasy and – if possible – a personal („modern“?) approach towards the subject.

About 12 students participated, beginners and advanced students.

They were very active people, and they worked hard.

The subject „Urban Landscape Drawing“ set high expectations.

This is usually not a course for „beginners“, but several students didn’t have any or almost no experience in drawing.

Nevertheless I think it was a very valuable time for all; the students got an idea what drawing can mean and how difficult it is.

Just the time was very short.

An intensive training in drawing helps to develop a more differentiated perception, which also means feeling for people, objects, environment....and leads to a more precise memory.

To ‚develop perception’ refers in the beginning of a drawing course to visual elements, like form, space, colour, composition, light and shadow, but slowly a differentiation can – simultaneously - grow in feeling and understanding of the single figure, the situation, the context, of the atmosphere, also on an abstract level.

Yes, I think a long intense studying of drawing can support thinking in general.

One perceives -from a situation- a more and more wider context in one moment.

Because of this – judgements, combinations and conclusions become complex with the time. When perception grows, it becomes finer in structure, like a net, and in the same moment the inner space of a person, spirit and soul, can grow, like an inner non visible organism . All of a sudden there is a continuous about the richness of the creation, the whole person changes, becomes differentiated and more mature.

Lisa M.Stybor, (Prof., MfA)

That evaluation of what impact drawing can have on perception says a lot about Lisa Stybor. She is like a poetic philosopher in the arts. She loves to articulate her questions in time and in public, as well as in-between spaces and time. To her it is impossible to conceive something without giving it time and space to find its way. It is like the river who must find the way to the ocean.

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Professor of Art at Bauhaus University, Dessau