Who can take a twist of wire and give it just the right bends and angles to take on the look and feel of a horse? Lisa Tuininga (pronounced Two-Ninga), who, for the past nine years, has been creating wire horse sculptures with a life of their own. To Lisa the work is play—just like loving horses.

While she has a formal education in art, having studied at De Paul University in Chicago, it’s her love of horses that brings Lisa’s work to life. “I’ve been around horses forever,” she says. “I started in pony classes at age five and never stopped riding.”

Indeed, being around horses is Lisa’s biggest artistic inspiration. “Every time you pick up a horse’s hoof or adjust a saddle on his back, you’re gathering information,” she says. Lisa translates this attention to detail to free-flowing wire forms that are whimsically abstract yet anatomically believable. Her horses feature hefty haunches with just the right bend at the hocks. Her dressage sculptures flaunt well-developed necks, toplines, and show ring attitude. Youngsters look ready to play. Her older horses have a sense of savvy - they’re not about to waste extra energy on a gallop, unless it’s their idea. Tails squiggle and loop with a sense of motion that simply reads “horse.”

Working with copper, steel, and aluminum, Lisa twists wire into three-dimensional forms that look capable of a whinny, a gallop, or even a mischievous kick to the unsuspecting bystander. She packs horse attitude into pieces of two sizes: smaller pieces measure approximately three to four inches in height; larger ones stand at six to seven inches high. (Some day she hopes to work in an even larger size, after she masters the art of welding. That will definitely be worth seeing!)

Lisa prefers working with a silver-colored aluminum wire, because of its flexibility. “Technically, it’s armature wire,” she explains. “The kind of wire used as an underlayer in pottery.” Lisa likes the wire because it’s light and easy to shape. “Steel and copper wire produce pieces that feel more substantial,” she says. “But it’s more time-consuming to work with and not as moldable.”

All of Lisa’s pieces are currently free-standing. “I think that’s part of their appeal,” she says. She may, however, add bases to her work in the future, to create groupings of horses. In any case, she makes each piece balance naturally, on three points. “I hate when you see a support piece in a sculpture,” she says, “It never looks natural.”

While many artists start with a sketch, Lisa simply starts with an idea. “For example, I might work on a grazing horse. I just start making it and each one comes out differently,” she says. She adds beads to some of the sculptures, to give them color and personality.

Working on individual pieces and keeping the process simple is important to Lisa. “I don’t want to lose the creativity or have them feel mass-produced,” she says. Which is why she’s moved slowly to market her work. Pieces are available at Mills Equestrian Equipment, The Art and Soul Gallery in Bothell, through her website: Lisashorses.net—and also by commission.

Recently, eventer Samantha Bergin celebrated her 30th birthday by commissioning a piece to resemble her mare, Georgia. “Working from a photo was new for me,” Lisa said. “It was fun to try to capture the horse from a single image.” Did it work? Samantha thought so. “I didn’t realize my special ‘Georgia’ was going to look so much my actual horse,” she said, “Lisa really captured her style and way of going. The head carriage, body proportions, tail carriage, and overall personality is so spot on!”

Lisa’s own riding interests are in eventing and dressage. She and her horse, Obi are showing at First and Second Level in dressage and will move up to Training Level eventing this year. “I feel lucky to have horses in my life,” she says, “and to get to express my feelings about them through my work.”

Lisa has worked for Mills Equestrian Equipment for the last several years but has recently limited her hours to manage the business end of The Media, a graphic design business she and her husband, Josh, started two years ago. The Media has done some beautiful advertising and website work for Mills Equestrian recently, further combining Lisa’s love of art and horses.

In the meantime, Lisa continues to create images that horse lovers will cherish—one twist at a time.

More of Lisa's work can be seen on her website: www.lisashorses.net
Lisa can be reached via e-mail at: lisa@the-medium.net