Originally featured in Las Vegas Weekly — June 5, 2013
The mysterious and colorful world of the early American circus inspired The Greatest Show on Earth, a themed exhibition at Blackbird Studios in Las Vegas.
The exhibition brought together local artists exploring the performers, personalities, spectacle, and darker history of traditional traveling circuses.
Among the works discussed in Las Vegas Weekly were fortune teller and bearded lady portraits attributed to Lisa Dietrich, an apparent alternate spelling of artist Lisa Dittrich’s name.
Arts writer Kristen Peterson highlighted these portraits as part of the exhibition’s exploration of circus culture and its unusual characters.
The works reflected themes that have remained central to Lisa’s artistic identity: eccentric personalities, theatrical imagery, fantasy, and the unexpected beauty found in unconventional subjects.
The exhibition offered a look beyond the bright lights and entertainment of the circus, exploring the performers and communities that made these traveling spectacles possible.
For Lisa, the subject provided an opportunity to bring distinctive characters and vintage-inspired storytelling into her artwork.
Her participation in The Greatest Show on Earth also documented her involvement in the Blackbird Studios arts community during an active period of themed exhibitions in Las Vegas.
Read the original Las Vegas Weekly article:
Blackbird’s “Greatest Show on Earth” Looks at the Early 20th Century American Circus