Lisa Regan

“I am a self-taught artist and business woman.  Since the beginning, I have kept my mission clear — to create positive artwork, following the belief that a joyful spirit leads to a healthier life.  And that is how I chose the name of my sculpture company, “Garden Deva”; ‘deva’ means ‘happy spirit’ in Sanskrit.  I enjoy enlivening heavy, industrial metal with whimsical, positive themes.

I have always been a creative person, writing poetry and drawing.  I thought I wanted to be a ceramic artist until everything I touched broke!  The idea to work with metal came to me in 1991, when I was working a 9 to 5 panty hose job in my mother’s manufacturing company.  The experience sparked childhood memories of my grandfather’s metal shop and it wasn’t long before I had bought a hand-held plasma torch.  I loved it immediately, drawing on the steel like drawing on paper and then cutting with the torch.  Soon I was cutting copper and aluminum as well and buffing, bending, rolling, grinding, rusting and welding my creations.

For a while, I still worked my office job as well as created my whimsical sculptures and sold them at local art festivals.  In 1996 I took the plunge — as a single mother raising four sons, I quit my office job and started my own company to create and sell my artwork full time. . .”