The FruitScape series is a modern play on the traditional still life.  Here fruit paintings are transformed from the traditional to the contemporary with sculptural shapes and brash colors set against the sky. Blemished fruits, tangled on vines, leaves spiraling over the edges are conveyed through the old master techniques of glazing.  These oil paintings are mostly envelope shaped often four feet wide horizontal canvases that take on the appearance of surreal landscapes.

The Sun series deals with light and water. Beach paintings, contain casts of beautiful people, their perfect bodies shaped by sun and shadow, water droplets over arms, holiday palettes of pastels and blues marking their insouciance and call to leisure. Water plays a large part in the scene, its patterns and rich blues becoming the focus of attention. Some are simply water paintings, in others pools and ocean become the source of pleasure: a woman on a zebra float, a couple asleep atop a fountain.

The moments  paintings are meant to capture someone in motion;  A dancer executing a movement is frozen into a single frame – consecutive canvases completing a turn.  Personal moments tell a story -a father comforting his little boy, a mother combing her daughter’s hair unaware of the child’s Lolita smile, a woman clothed in cultural icons biting into an all-American hot dog. The images are often framed in close to read expressions and create a contemporary spin on portraiture.

Digital Art – David Hockney was the inspiration for these tablet generated images.  Following in his footsteps, Risa began an Ipad generated sketchbook as commentary on daily life. The spontaneous style lead to  “Side Street Stories” a New York centric comic blog about the life and times of a freelance artist facing the challenges of being a middle aged and underemployed woman in a millennial world.