HAIR AND MAKE UP, TO NI MASC IANGELO , P1M.
studying for more than two years, Liisa dreams of building a greenhouse at home in Toronto (she’s currently in the midst of renovations on the house itself ) and creating a clinic and community center of sorts for kids and families around plants. “My purpose has become to connect people with plants and to make them see that in their own backyard, they can grow things that are going to help them and heal their bodies, and also be healthier for the planet.” Georgia O’Keeffe made the physical and inspirational leap from Manhattan skyscrapers to the New Mexican desert well into middle age as she sought new creative incubation after the death of her husband and collaborator, photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Liisa Winkler’s desire to be close to the land has been something she’s held dear since childhood; it was something that was nurtured and brought into full bloom by an icon of modern environmentalism, Dr. David Suzuki. As a kid growing up in Southern Ontario, Liisa had a poster of Dr. Suzuki on her wall (“I had a little crush on him”), and she has long considered him a mentor. “I’ve always felt a connection to being in natural environments, caring about it and wondering why we hurt it,” she says. “I remember being little and watching David Suzuki’s The Nature of Things, and thinking, ‘How come he’s saying all these things and nobody’s doing anything—it’s such a strong argument.’ The rest of the world’s not listening.”
Sustainability is the thread to follow in this story. The notion not only that one might create work that sustains— both O’Keeffe and Dr. Suzuki’s legacies echo, and will continue to do so, and Liisa’s career as a model has continued long past the usual 25-year-old expiry date—but that sustainability, with its myriad meanings, is a way of being. Each of these people—who are all f igures of our collective culture, and yet remain wholly human—both used and preserved the earth and its bounty, and have made it their mission, whether documenting it through art and through television (as Suzuki did with The Nature of Things), or, crucially, by bringing that connection to others, through art, yes, but also through advocacy, and, as Liisa hopes to do, through teaching. Of course, this kind of devotion and purpose begets another result, that the earth offers so much beauty, that other stuff becomes just that: stuff. It’s something Liisa was reminded of modeling herself after Georgia O’Keeffe: that simplicity in things often yields a better understanding of the environment’s majesty. When asked if there are any objects, if there’s any stuff, to which she’s emotionally attached, Liisa pauses. “Books? ” Evidently, when you make space for that which matters, the other things fall away.
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