Linda Bishara
Artist Profile: Linda Bishara
Memory & Myths
by Paloma Jimenez
The objects and symbols inhabiting Linda Bishara’s world read like a list of magic potion ingredients: beetle, eggshell, raincloud, tooth, bubblegum, doll head, and a sprinkle of stars. Some other key elements are memory, dreams, and sculptural intuition. Her maximalist ceramic sculptures fuse fantastical elements with familiar objects until they burst into colorful new visions. Totemic, containing many transportive nooks and crannies to get lost in, Bishara’s work offers a place for escapism, protection, and transformation.
A view of Linda Bishara’s work in the kiln. Image courtesy of the artist.
The malleability of Bishara’s current medium, clay, reflects the many twists and turns in her art journey. She began creating early on, remembering, “My dad worked for a RoseArt® factory most of my life with the plastic injection molding. He was always coming home with a ton of art supplies for me to play with and I eventually also came to realize I love mold-making. My Peruvian grandpa enjoyed sculpting nativity scenes out of papier mâché.” [1] Creation was a constant presence at home, but she was dissuaded from pursuing art in college. After obtaining a law degree, Bishara worked in a corporate firm for many years, always carving out time to make art in her spare time.
A view of Linda Bishara’s Fever Dream in progress. Image courtesy of the artist.
Originally a painter, Bishara eventually began to experiment with a variety of materials, discovering that hand-building with clay aligned best with her thought process. When she first started working in clay, she notes: “I loved the immediacy of working with clay—with a pinch of the clay I could completely transform the shape rather than sitting in front of an easel for hours painting the same section. I didn’t know until that moment that I needed a medium that worked at the speed my brain worked.”
Linda Bishara, Fever Dream, 2024, stoneware clay, glaze, underglaze, glass, and luster, 24 x 17 x 17 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
But Bishara’s background in painting still shines through in her painterly application of glazes to textured ceramic details. The shifting aquamarine waves in Fever Dream hold technicolor currents of Lucky Charms® marshmallows and candied jewels. A cheeky, gap-toothed red heart character emerges from the top, stars in its eyes for the sweet space it inhabits. Ice cream cones, a pearlescent popsicle, and even an alert rat swirl around the cloudy waves, all perched atop strawberry stilts.
Linda Bishara, Girlhood Dreams, 2024, stoneware clay, glaze, underglaze, glass, and luster, 14 x 10.5 x 3.5 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
It’s easy to get lost in the dripping glazes and tender details. Creating a space for herself and the viewer to escape into is a significant part of the work. Bishara alludes to “a simpler time in one’s life with less responsibility where many of us were privileged enough to not have to worry about real adult problems.” Girlhood Dreams depicts the innocence of childhood joy. A green-faced doll conjures peachy dreams of a sugary SpongeBob® popsicle and a fancy old house; death is merely a friendly ghost.
Linda Bishara, Strawberry Surprise, 2025, stoneware clay, wire, glaze, underglaze, luster, and freshwater pearls. 14.5 x 7.5 x 7.5 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
Created during Bishara’s time spent as a caretaker for her mother with Alzheimer’s, the saturated sculptures helped her cope with “the slow goodbye that exists when someone you love suffers with a neurological disease like that.” Grief can strangle the heart. Inventing a world in which to escape becomes a form of survival. Strawberry Surprise, a sculptural lamp, encapsulates this feeling. A star-freckled doll head embedded into an oozing strawberry forms the core of the work, while a ghost traverses through the surrounding rain clouds in a hot air balloon. The falling droplets, at once raindrops and tears, are an integral part of the magical journey.
Linda Bishara, Magic at Dusk, 2025, earthenware clay, acrylic paint, resin, and wire, 8 x 6 x 3 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
Bishara is inspired by the aesthetics and powerful objects in “magical girl anime.” Indeed, her own sculptures can instantly transport the viewer to another land amidst a scattering of gold luster sparkles. Magic at Dusk exudes the aura of a protective amulet worn in a journey through unknown terrain.
Linda Bishara, Visions of Ecstasy in the Palace of the Unknown, 2024, stoneware clay, underglaze, glaze, and luster, 26 x 17 x 12.5 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
The multi-level landscape of Visions of Ecstasy in the Palace of the Unknown happily unfolds as if told from the perspective of a gumball in a girl’s pocket. A clamshell—reminiscent of Polly Pocket’s® secret abode—sprouts star wands and a tasseled heart charm. The confidence of the cuteness lends the piece an allegorical slant; it is Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus (c. 1485) for the modern age.
Linda Bishara, Artificial Portals to Truth, 2025, stoneware clay, underglaze, glaze, luster, and metal, 69 x 16 x 18 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
Bishara’s sculptures certainly have a sweet tooth, but the immediate dopamine hit of her candy-colored sculptures ultimately settles into an emotional journey through esoteric realms. Toys, animals, games, and treats hold a deeper significance. For instance, the ambitious Artificial Portals to Truth shifts meaning as you move around the work. Its carnival vignette features a spinning prize wheel, reflecting the many potential paths life might offer. Bishara explains: “The sacred ibis in a cage containing a key was a reference to us as humans containing all the wisdom we need to take a certain path.” Video game controller elements in the piece “reference our ability to take charge and make our own choices proactively.”
A detail view of Linda Bishara’s Artificial Portals to Truth, 2025, stoneware clay, underglaze, glaze, luster, and metal, 69 x 16 x 18 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
Artificial Portals to Truth marks a pivotal moment of transition in Bishara’s work towards more serious subject matter. As a new mother she finds her perspective on grief and death shifting. Rather than escape difficult subjects, she is confronting them head-on in current works. “I’ve been thinking of Ancient Peruvian and Egyptian cultures (where my parents are from) and how those cultures didn’t shy away from the topic of death but rather embraced it in their beliefs and the relics and art they created.”
A view of a new work in progress for Linda Bishara’s upcoming exhibition at Understudy. Image courtesy of the artist.
She has also been sculpting through these ideas with red clay, which “pulls out a different, looser way of handling the clay and really feels like I’m returning home and adding to the history and lineage of those cultures.” In her upcoming exhibition at Understudy in downtown Denver, opening September 12, 2026, she will explore her interest in ancient Egyptian tombs. Bishara envisions “a space containing magical ceremonial objects to inspire contemplation of life’s mysteries, a space that feels like a transitional realm between the living and the dead.”
A view of one of Linda Bishara’s new red clay works in progress in the kiln. Image courtesy of the artist.
A detail view of Linda Bishara’s Fever Dream, 2024, stoneware clay, glaze, underglaze, glass, and luster, 24 x 17 x 17 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
Linda Bishara’s ceramic enchantments will make you believe in magic again. It can be as simple as a wish upon a star, or as complex as navigating the unknown rooms of the afterlife.
Paloma Jimenez (she/her) is an artist, writer, and editorial coordinator for DARIA magazine. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and has been featured in international publications. She received a BA from Vassar College and an MFA from Parsons School of Design.
[1] From an interview with the artist in May 2026. All quotations are from the same interview.
