Art Has No Rules: Inside the Creative World of Lucy Mueller
From collagraphs and sculpture to colorful collages and handmade sketchbooks, New London artist Lucy Mueller has spent decades exploring the many ways art can take shape.
An artist’s practice is rarely a straight line. For Lucy Mueller, a lifetime of making art has meant experimenting with different materials, embracing new creative directions, and allowing her work to evolve alongside the experiences that shape it.
Over the years, Lucy has worked as a corporate art consultant, an art teacher, and an art therapist. Each chapter brought different perspectives and purposes to her creative practice, resulting in a body of work that spans painting, sculpture, printmaking, mixed media, and collage. Today, she often finds inspiration in the materials already around her, transforming leftover prints, discarded pieces, and everyday objects into something entirely new.
Visitors who explored Lucy’s Hemlock Harbor Studio during the Center for the Arts’ Open Studios weekend had the opportunity to see this evolution firsthand. Her studio reflects decades of experimentation, where older works coexist with recent creations and the creative process is just as interesting as the finished piece.
Lucy’s work will also be featured in Gems & Wonders, the upcoming exhibition at the Center for the Arts’ Members Gallery at 428 Main Street in New London, running November 5, 2026, through January 9, 2027. The exhibition offers another opportunity to discover the work of regional artists and experience the many forms that creativity can take.
We spoke with Lucy about her evolving practice, her approach to materials, and why she believes art is for everyone.
A Lifetime of Experimentation
Q: For those discovering your work for the first time, how would you describe your artistic practice and the ideas or subjects that draw you in?
A: It is difficult and would be confusing for those who walk into my studio for the first time. People think of artists and picture their media and images of their work. Students of art history know that most well-known artists are recognized for a particular style or even a special painting or sculpture, but most artists experiment and develop over the years, often moving from realism to abstraction or changing media.
My studio includes artworks that I created 50 years ago as well as pieces made last month. My work changed as my life changed. I worked as a corporate art consultant, an art teacher, then an art therapist; each phase of my life affected the art I produced.
“My studio includes artworks that I created 50 years ago as well as pieces made last month.”
Q: Your work spans painting, sculpture, mixed media, printmaking, and even handmade or collaged paper goods. What do you enjoy about moving between different forms of making, and how do those practices inform one another?
A: The span of my artwork has moved as the reasons for making it changed. When I was being paid to create a harmonious collagraph that matched the color scheme of a hospital, I did that. Now when I paint just for fun on a small card table in my spare bedroom, my work is smaller, freer and wildly colored.
I am a recycler, and what I see in front of me is usually what I pick up and play with. I hate to waste anything and incorporate pieces of prints made 40 years ago into collages, books, covers for Kleenex boxes…
"I hate to waste anything and incorporate pieces of prints made 40 years ago into collages."
Q: Is there a particular medium or process that you find yourself returning to again and again? What keeps bringing you back to it?
A: Collage seems to be my go-to medium now because I’m trying to use up and order my studio spaces while I still have energy.
Finding Possibility in What’s Already There
Q: How does the place where you live and work influence what you make? Are there particular aspects of the landscape, seasons, or surroundings that regularly find their way into your work?
A: When I inherited a shop space with leftover pieces of wood from home repairs, I made outdoor sculptures using the drill press, skill saw and handheld drill. When I have a large space, I paint large paintings, but I’ve limited myself to pieces that I can carry myself and fit into my car. During the decades that I created collagraphs, the only time I could use leaves to print was autumn!
Q: Can you tell us a little about Hemlock Harbor Studio? What is the space like as a working studio, and how does having a dedicated place to make art affect your practice?
A: Hemlock Harbor Studio is in the garage and formerly functioned as a small apartment we lived in when the main house was rented. Now the space is a working studio, and I live in New London where I’ve made a small working space in my spare bedroom.
Having a dedicated place to make art used to be one of the most important things to me, so now I feel guilty that I don’t use this beautiful spacious space very often.
"Having a dedicated place to make art used to be one of the most important things to me"
Q: When someone visits your studio, they may see finished paintings alongside works in progress, experiments, tools, and materials. Is there something about seeing that less-finished side of the process that you particularly enjoy sharing with visitors?
A: When someone visits my studio, they will see that a whole lot of materials and clutter produces art and that one doesn’t need to have brand-new equipment and supplies.
“A whole lot of materials and clutter produces art.”
Art Is for Everyone
Q: You welcomed visitors to your studio during CFA’s Open Studios weekend. What would you most like people to notice, ask about, or experience when they walk through your door?
A: When visitors walk through my door I hope that they will see that art can be made by anyone and that it is created for many different purposes. My current artwork is made just to make me happy.
Q: What do you think people discover by visiting an artist’s actual working space that they can’t necessarily experience by seeing the finished artwork in a gallery or online?
A: Visiting artists’ studios helps people realize that there is no one, correct way to make art.
"Visiting artists’ studios helps people realize that there is no one, correct way to make art."
Q: CFA’s Open Studios event brings together artists working in very different media and at different stages of their practices throughout the Lake Sunapee region. What do you think is valuable about creating an event where people can experience that variety firsthand?
A: Hopefully, studio tours will encourage visitors to appreciate the art they see and perhaps try out their own creativity.
"Encourage visitors to appreciate the art they see and perhaps try out their own creativity."
Q: CFA also provides opportunities for artists to connect with the public through exhibitions, classes, events, and community programs. From your perspective as an artist, what kinds of connections or opportunities are most meaningful?
A: CFA’s Art Café has been the most meaningful experience for me.
Making Something That Inspires Others
Q: Is there a particular piece, project, or creative direction you’re exploring right now that you’re especially excited about? What are you curious to see develop next?
A: I’ve been collaging the covers of notebooks for creative writing and sketchbooks for artworks for this Open Studios and hope that they will encourage others to write and make art. Art is just one of many creative expressions.
Q: What would you say to someone who enjoys looking at art but has never felt comfortable walking into an artist’s studio or talking with an artist about their work?
A: Art is not just for artists.
"Art is not just for artists."
Lucy Mueller’s approach is a reminder that creativity doesn’t have to fit into a single medium, style, or stage of life. Sometimes it begins with a collection of leftover materials, a willingness to experiment, or simply the desire to make something that brings joy.
Through exhibitions, artist programs, and community experiences, the Center for the Arts continues to create opportunities for people to discover local artists, connect with their work, and find inspiration for their own creative lives.
Discover Lucy Mueller’s work at Gems & Wonders, on view November 5, 2026–January 9, 2027, at the Center for the Arts Members Gallery, 428 Main Street, New London, NH.
