As an artist, I find no substitute for the feeling that what I believe or have experienced and what has materialized on paper before me are finally synchronized.  It is something of an addiction to this feeling that fuels my desire to make art.  My images, whether they explore the contour and beauty of human form, or the vibration of one pure color against another, are introspective investigations of experience, and to an extent are autobiographical.

The process of printmaking lends itself to introspection, since the image must be conceived, etched into a plate---sometimes re-etched—and revised in steps until the image is complete.  My monoprints, though more spontaneous than etching, are also the result of a process—layering one hue atop another, divided carefully with engraved lines.  In creating that spiritual and emotional content is not restricted to representational images alone, but can potently exist in abstract art, too.

Alisha Tolman studied drawing and printmaking at Utah State University, earning a Bachelor of Fine Art Degree in 2003.  She has participated in many exhibitions; her first solo was in 2003 at Logan’s Café Ibis.  Her work is part of the permanent collection of the Merrill Library at Utah State University.  After spending a year abroad as an English teacher in Taiwan, Alisha currently lives in St. George, where she was raised in close proximity to her family and Boarder Collie, Freddie.