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Lucinda Bliss has completed a new collection of work that considers ecological and social challenges. Her work is currently on display at the UA Poetry Center.

Menageries of bandaged deer, rabbits, ostriches, and birds balance in odd clusters in ephemeral habitats in the new works of Lucinda Bliss. 

The University of Arizona Poetry Center will be featuring the new displays through Nov. 13 in the Jeremy Ingalls Gallery, which is located at the center's Helen S. Schaefer Building, 1508 E. Helen St. 

Currently a liberal arts professor at the Union Institute and University, Bliss teaches studio art and visual culture and chairs the art department. 

Bliss works primarily in drawing, painting, and mixed media and has shown her work throughout the United States in major cities that include Chicago, Boston and Portland. She also has shown abroad in Iraq.

Her new collection of work, "Sentinels," consists of a recent series of mixed media drawings in which she employs a playful visual language to speak to grave ecological and other concerns.

"Sentinels" consists of a recent series of mixed media drawings in which Bliss employs a playful visual language to speak to grave ecological and other concerns – but in the absence of definable place and natural order.

The exploration continues in the altered book series, "Atlas of American Wars, Books I-IV," in which the visual language of playing cards is utilized.

In this work Bliss is reconsidering the concept of the "monumental," exploring whether it might be applied to delicate, representational work. She also asks how a playful, even beautiful, visual language can speak to urgent social issues.