I’ve been drawing, painting, and building things for as long as I can remember. Curiosity about the natural world and how things are made is behind most of what I do. I like to get my hands dirty and throw myself into my work, which is a manifestation of the all-in, imperfect but direct way I approach life. Recent events have me turning from a solitary studio practice to more collaborative and public work, especially around themes of joy, wildlife, and nature.

I earned a BFA in illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design where I studied in Rome with the European Honors Program for a year. Soon after, I moved to St. John in the US Virgin Islands where I made and sold art and opened a small gallery with another artist. After a year I moved to NYC, worked at a mural house, and earned an MFA in painting from the New York Academy of Art. Friends and I opened and ran a cooperative gallery on east seventh street in the basement of a Ukrainian church.

Drawn by a live work opportunity, I moved to Connecticut. There I joined and for a year led the Loft Artists Association, developing my art and helping to create and deliver free art workshops and experiences to the public, and became a teaching artist with the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield. I created art classes and exhibits for local middle schoolers in Norwalk through the Silvermine Guild of Artists’ outreach program, was an art mentor for elementary school students in Stamford, and set up and ran a free choice art program for local middle schoolers at Stamford’s public charter school. I created and exhibited work in Connecticut and New York, including at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center and the Lockwood Mathews Museum in Norwalk, and had work added to private and public art collections, including at Stamford Hospital, SH’s Bennet Cancer Center, Yale New Haven Hospital’s Park Avenue Medical Center, and Sacred Heart University, and included in the movies “The Bounty Hunter” with Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston and “Something Borrowed” with Kate Hudson and Ginnifer Goodwin. As New Canaan Library’s second artist in residence I exhibited and offered nature and conservation themed art workshops to the public. Through the National Parks Artist in Residence program I spent a month living and painting at Weir Farm in Wilton in 2019.

During the shutdown, I created and installed a mural at Stamford Hospital’s Bennet Cancer Center. I am now working with local students to design and install a mural here in Stamford. See my art at alissasiegal.com & realart.work and on instagram.