A summer breeze with talented artist Lizi Summer

Lina Petraviciute
1 hour ago
8 min read

To step into an artist’s world is to enter a space where memory, emotion, fear, resilience, and imagination coexist in fragile yet breathtaking harmony. Conversations like this are profoundly eye-opening because they reveal not only the finished works we admire in galleries or studios, but the deeply human journeys that shape them — the quiet battles, moments of reinvention, dreams carried through years of silence, and the courage required to transform pain into beauty.

Through this interview, the artist invites us beyond the surface of sculpture, wood, music, and reclaimed materials, into a living landscape of vulnerability and empowerment. Her reflections move fluidly between past and present: from creating monumental copper spirals and poetic wooden forms to surviving trauma, rediscovering her voice, and finding healing through nature, love, and artistic expression. What emerges is more than an artistic practice — it is a testimony to authentic intelligence, emotional truth, and the transformative power of creativity. In a world often dominated by noise and performance, her story reminds us that art remains one of the purest ways to reconnect with ourselves, with others, and with the quiet strength needed to rise again. 1. Your work carries a deep emotional weight, which, after visiting your studio, I saw even more in depth —how do your personal experiences shape what you choose to express through your work? Does it influence the materials you choose?

Love, flow and connection is my personal default setting when I create. That connection from the heart through to the hands. Creating physical shapes to capture movement and feeling. This movement seen in nature, in dance, music and in emotions. Ideas of sculptures, drawings, paintings flow until I find the material that can carry them energetically. To quote Ben Okri: 'Any artist will tell you that ideas are happier in the heaven of their conception than on the earth of their realisation.' The courage to start from the ideas flowing in my heart and head need a gentle birthing. I like playing with scraps of paper - doodling 3D structures by ripping paper - or drawing in a cafe on a napkin or in the forest with leaves. Then the right material arises. From an idea I love the serendipity of meeting others who have introduced me to new materials. In Jersey, Channel Islands, during my Art degree I bought scraps of stainless steel to experiment with from a commercial welding workshop. This led to a collaboration with a copper smith who trusted me to use his spot welder and taught me how to work with copper. Three years later we had installed 3 large commercial sculptures that I had designed and made with him. From a small maquette that could sit on my hand this was scaled up to a beautiful 6 metre copper sculpture based on the Fibonacci Spiral. It is important for me that I am working with the materials - using my own hands - intuitively creating physical forms.

2. I admire your work with wood. The way such complex materials seem so soft and poetic within your works. So, from my side, the question would be, working with wood is very physical and organic—how does this material help you translate complex emotions into form? I know your pieces were represented in well-known galleries amongst famous artists - could you share that glimpse too?

Thank you - working with wood is akin to dancing. Each plank of wood is selected to ensure that it can be steamed without snapping with no knots or junctions of joining branches. I don’t make jigs with a preplanned structure as if making a boat. I always thank the wood - acknowledging the tree. I also work as a forest guide. Trees twist and turn, branches energetically making unique shapes as if showing a particular direction the traveller could take. It takes 30 minutes to steam each plank in the steamer and just 30 seconds to bend. Each plank of wood leads the dance, shows me the direction and shape of turns. Then comes the fun part of linking several pieces together. It is a complex and fun 3D puzzle using clamps allowing the wood to show me the way.

You ask about complex feelings - for me emotions distil into a profound underlying emotion. In personal drawings and sculptures I have distilled trauma into what lies beneath such as fear or love. I created a cathartic piece using a discarded broken bird cage into the shape of a female torso. Using stripped copper music cables I made a heart that was too big to leave the cage. The heart connected to hands trying to pull the bars of the cage apart. The heart is too large and loving to leave the cage no matter how strong the hands try to force the bars apart. This piece of work was in an all female exhibition ‘Being Human.’

There is an invisible emotional thread through all my art - photography, 2D, 3D is a celebration of connection, nature and love. Translating the feeling that I am a spiritual being having a human experience.

3. What is the biggest challenge for you as an artist? You have such experience, but I wish to hear your voice more in the artistic world. Is it a choice or part of the journey? You work a lot with private clients. Yes admittedly I have been hiding away on a mountainside surrounded by forest for the past 6 years. Private clients have found me and I enjoy creating personalised commissions. The last was a beautiful paper cut poem with Japanese gold paint. I am grateful for your support to encourage me to use my voice. I have been feeling the need to be invisible and know that it is time to become visible communicating authentically - not artificially. I have felt social media, smart phones, all the loud exposure ... the ‘look at me’ vibe overwhelming. Furthermore my personal life had challenges. The bird cage was created in a women’s refuge after I finally squeezed my heart out of a gilded cage and abusive marriage. This is the first time to communicate this but it is the first time I have felt I can share my story. I have had such anxiety about him and his ‘enablers’ who knew what was going on reading about me. To quote Maya Angelou: 'leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise, Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear, I rise.' My left ear has permanent damage but now I’m rediscovering music again and using my voice positively in the world.

4. How do you navigate the balance between vulnerability in your work and maintaining emotional boundaries for yourself? Being very transparent for yourself does not always land the same for the viewer. How do you navigate that feedback? When it comes to the creative process I am all in emotionally. In that flow state of making and working with materials it is safe to be vulnerable. I am happy for the viewer to have their own relationship with the art. In the wooden sculptures I enjoy watching others interacting with my work. I have seen joy and playfulness - elements I’ve embodied creating the pieces. Art is subjective and so personal. More than anything in life I hope to bring a smile and some love into the world. It feels much needed at the moment. Volunteering on a refugee camp in Greece I experienced the power of art to bring people together, a dialogue and non verbal connection.

🌱I have an ongoing project of heart photographs that started in 2007 after having a miscarriage. Returning from the hospital I found a perfect heart in the bottom of a mug of hot chocolate. Since then every day I photograph hearts - in nature, the sky, reflections - everywhere. I have over 10,000 photos. One day I will look forward to creating an installation in a very large gallery to celebrate my daughter in spirit whose name is 💛Summer💛. I have found in this highly vulnerable project beautiful connections and enthusiasm. Often being sent photos of hearts that have been discovered. This is very precious. That others will be looking for hearts - for connection and love.

5. As your work gains recognition in major galleries, how do you stay connected to the raw, personal origins of your practice? Everyday I write and sketch. I have always been obsessed with the curve as opposed to a straight line. That is my invisible thread - my original practice from drawing underneath a tree with twigs as a toddler. As a forest therapy guide trained with The Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT) I have a daily practice of sitting in nature. It is called a ‘sit spot’. For 20 minutes I sit under the same tree, clear my head and plug into the nature around. This morning I was blessed with seeing an inquisitive deer. In nature everything is curved.

6. Being in your studio and environment, I noticed that nature, poetry, music, journey of other artists have an impact on your journey. How do you manoeuvre experimentation within the realm of others' works and being inspired? Oh I love experimenting and being playful. Melodies become sculptures. Poetry translated into abstract colours. As an artist I think it is important to learn about others’ work - past, present and possible future trends - away from ai. Currently I am collaborating with a Jazz musician creating sound scapes. It was delightful to play my hand pan in a new musical composition. Soon there will be an installation turning a musical composition into a sculpture.

7. What would you give as advice to young artists who are just after art school?

Recognise your inner voice, your authentic expression and self. Always protect that strong sense of self. Learning foundational skills is important before breaking the rules and being experimental. Constructive criticism is one thing but if students/tutors are unkind their comments must not be taken to heart. For me curiosity always wins over judgement. If a comment cannot pass through 3 doors: is it truthful? it is kind? is it necessary?... then it should not be said. Words are powerful, art is personal, so protect your creative heart at all costs.

It is interesting the word ‘young’ as I feel that anyone can blossom and become an Artist. I had a place to do an engineering degree when I was 18. In the early 1990’s I would have been the only female engineer at university and after a brief work experience I realised that as a sensitive soul I was not up to facing all the sexism. So I did a teaching degree with creative arts - sculpture and dance - as my main subject. For over 20 years I loved teaching in a first school. Then I re-invented myself in my 40’s. Definitely young at heart.

Before creating work I am so conscious of all the physical ‘stuff’ that is made, the raw materials such as stainless steel first made in a factory. I love recycling using reclaimed materials such as my bird cage shaped into a female form with her heart made of discarded copper music cables. In making wooden sculptures the wood must come from responsibly managed forests, ideally salvaged fallen trees promoting ecological balance and carbon sequestration. I know and trust that ‘youthful’ artists beginning their journey are so aware of the fragility of our precious planet.